


Freckled Pirouette ~Changlix~

by Woojin_small_tooth_enthusiast



Category: Stray Kids (Band)
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Angst, Ballerina Felix, Domestic Fluff, Eventual Smut, Fluff and Angst, Fluff and Smut, Homophobia, Hurt Felix, Lee Felix (Stray Kids) is a Sweetheart, Lee Felix (Stray Kids)-centric, M/M, Shy Lee Felix (Stray Kids), Smut, Underground Rapper Seo Changbin, after the initial angst of course, changbin helps felix, changlix, college students, hyunjin/seungmin/jeongin, minsung - Freeform, ot9 fluff, the other members help Felix, woochan - Freeform
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-09
Updated: 2019-11-11
Packaged: 2020-06-25 08:24:37
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 11
Words: 37,974
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19741864
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woojin_small_tooth_enthusiast/pseuds/Woojin_small_tooth_enthusiast
Summary: One night, Changbin finds himself with an injured boy in his arms with no idea of how to help him.--Felix is a ballerina, accepted into one of Seoul's most prestigous dance schools and Changbin is in his second year of business college.--Changbin, after calling an ambulance to help Felix is determined to see if he's okay. The two start a frienshdip that then extends to the rest of Changbin's (8-membered) family.--Felix clearly has feelings for Changbin, and Changbin for Felix, however there is something holding Felix back, what is it?--(There will be the main ships listed in the tags and generally a lot of ot9 fluff as well, cause I'm a sucker for it.)--Hiatus until Feb, sorry guys :(((





	1. (1) Start Line

Felix’s feet hurt. He walks gingerly, leaning on the heels of his feet to ease his abused toes. Ballet practise had been a challenge today, his teacher making him re-run his performance number over and over again until the healing skin on the end of toes once again began to crack– staining his white pointe shoes. Too poor to afford new ones, the fresh blood stain accompanied many others, each a symbol of his effort to pursue his dream as Korea’s best male ballet dancer. 

Felix drew his coat further around him, the late night hair stinging his freckled cheeks and wracking through his frail figure. Being a ballet dancer was very demanding on your body, that, mixed with a lack of incoming finances meant that Felix was extremely skinny, the coat not providing as much warmth as he needed.

Felix tenses, his head turning to the side as he hears what sounds like multiple people approaching him from behind. 

“Hey, pretty boy.” 

Felix put his head down, picked up the pace and drew his coat even further around his slim figure. 

The footsteps came closer. 

“HEY” 

A hand reached out and grabbed his coat, pulling it off Felix. He turned around in his leotard to face the four men who were smirking, their large height making Felix cower beneath them.

“You ARE a fag. You owe me fifty bucks bro.” The tallest of the men leers at the guy next to him. 

“How do you know?” The one scoffs back. 

“Look at is pansy ass leotard and tights.” Another man interjects, sending the four men into fits of cruel laughter. 

“… Can I please have my coat back...” Felix asks, frightened at the situation around him, making him feel even colder. 

“Hmm no. Someone of your… orientation doesn’t deserve a coat. It’s disgusting.” 

“I’m not gay.” Felix replies, this being a term that was ingrained in his memory after years of living with his abusive father. He too shared the same smirk as these men when he would beat Felix whenever he returned from ballet. 

“I’ll be off now then.” Felix continued, however knowing that there was no way that his ordeal was over. 

“I don’t think so” the tallest says, grabbing Felix’s hair and dragging him into an alleyway. 

~ Earlier that day ~

“YO BINNIE” 

Changbin lets out a “hmph” as Jisung wraps his arms around him. Changbin usually hates people touching him but he had given up with Jisung’s relentlessness… and Chan’s… and Hyunjin’s… and Seungmin’s… and Woojin’s… and Minho’s… and Jeongin’s… so basically all his best friends now that he comes to think of it… 

“Don’t call me Binnie on campus.” Changbin says gruffly to the boy who is now completely wrapped around his neck like a Koala. 

“Why, don’t you want your business class knowing how soft you really are?” Changbin can’t see Jisung’s face but can hear the smirk in his voice. 

‘Get off me, you leech” Changbin says, pulling a pouting Jisung off of him. However, his friend’s mood instantly changes when he sees a particular someone’s car pull into the University carpark. 

“MIN” Jisung screams, running up to his boyfriend and jumping into his chest, wrapping his legs around Minho’s waist and his arms around the other’s neck. 

“WOAH, hey Sung.” Minho says, laughing at the actions of his very clingy boyfriend. 

Turning his attention to Changbin, Minho asks “Hey, I was just on my lunch break and so I thought I would pick up Jisung for his shift at the café. You want a ride to Woojin’s?” 

“Thank you, hyung” Changbin says, smiling widely at Minho, who still has Jisung clutched around him. 

“Soft” Jisung coughs out, then turning to Minho and kissing him, before he could say anything about him relentlessly picking on Changbin. 

;;;

Even in the car Jisung had to be touching someone, his and Minho’s hands intertwined near the gearstick, meaning that Minho was currently only driving with one hand. 

“You know that Chan hyung would be angry if he found out that you we’re driving with one hand Minho.” Changbin says, poking his tongue out at Jisung who was making childish faces at him.

“Binnie hyung is just jealous that he’s single. To be honest, you shouldn’t have broken up with that sexy, tall dude… what was his name?”

“Yunho? Dude that was in senior year.” Changbin scoffs. 

“Yeah and probably the last time you got boned.” Jisung replies laughing, lifting his unoccupied hand for a hive five from Minho. 

Minho looks in the rear view mirror at Changbin with sorry eyes before high fiving his boyfriend. “He’s got you there Changbin.” 

“Fuck you two. AND DRIVE WITH AT LEAST ONE HAND, JESUS.” Changbin says, crossing his arms and leaning into the door of the car so he could look out the window and pout. 

;;; 

“We’re here. Have fun Changbin. We’ll see you tonight at the tournament.” Minho says, smiling widely at his shorter friend. 

“Yeah, see you there and thanks hyung for the ride.” Changbin says, still pouting. 

“No goodbye for--” Changbin slams the door on Jisung before he can finish what he was saying. He then begins to walk towards Woojin’s chicken store, hearing an “I LOVE YOU BINNIE” fade into the distance. He giggles to himself, before walking into his workplace, the little bell above the door dinging as he does so. Woojin pops his head above the counter at the sound. 

“Hey Changbin! You’re early? Did Minho drop you off again?” 

“Yeah”, Changbin says, opening the small door to walk behind the counter.

“How was the ride with the two love birds. As gross as last time?” Woojin asks, handing Changbin his yellow ‘CBF’ apron. Chan created the English name for Woojin as a joke, and for some reason Woojin kept it. Chan would always giggle, even though he says it stands for ‘Chicken Be Fried’, confusing the other members. 

“Yep.” Changbin replies sighing to his hyung, who often hears his rants about all the couples he lives with. 

“Ew. Young love is gross.” Woojin replies, trying to comfort his friend. 

“Woojin… don’t act all innocent! Jeonginnie had to sleep over last night because apparently you two were getting all touchy after dinner.” 

“What, when my man gets hungry – I feed him yanno what I’m saying… eh… yeah you do.” 

“UGH” Changbin walks out the back of the restaurant to begin cutting up the chicken for the dinner service. 

“IM JOKING BIN” Woojin replies, laughing hysterically. “Well… kinda”. 

Changbin acts like he didn’t hear that last part as he continues into the fridge to grab the chickens. 

;;; 

Sweating, Changbin, Chan and Jisung leave the stage to the loud cheers of the audience. The loudest being the corner in the back, where Seungmin, Hyunjin, Jeongin, Minho and Woojin sat a table. 

“You guys were great!” Hyunjin says, getting up to pat the three rappers on the back. 

“You wanna go get some dinner?” Seungmin questions. 

“Hyung, it’s nearly midnight. What's open at this time of night?” Jeongin asks Seungmin from the other side of Hyunjin. 

Everyone looks at Woojin “OOOH”. Jeongin sounds. “Woojinnie hyung, my handsome cousin, would you consider opening your restaurant to feed us hungry children?” 

Woojin smiles brightly “Anything for my ‘children’” he says. 

“I’m gonna go home guys, I’m really tired.” Changbin tells the others, whose faces instantly dampen. 

“It’s okay Changbin. You rest up, we’ll see you tomorrow for Wednesday-night-dinner at our place, yeh?” he says, motioning to his roommates; Woojin and Jeongin. 

“Yep” Changbin replies before walking out of the bar into the icy Seoul-winter night. 

;;; 

The bar was located on a pretty shifty side of Seoul, so Changbin keeps his phone and keys close as he walks towards the train station. Just as he is about start walking down the steps to the station he hears the yelling of some men. 

“YOU GONNA GET UP FAG? HUH? NO YOU CAN’T, YOU WEAK PIECE OF SHIT.” 

Changbin runs towards the noise, hiding around a corner as he sees four men walking in his direction laughing. He waits until they are out of sight and the runs towards were they we’re before, where they had obviously done something terrible. 

Seeing a heap on the ground, Changbin runs towards it. “Hey, are you okay?” he asks, to which there is no reply from the beaten boy, except ragged breathing. “Shit.” He puts his arms under the boy's shoulders and lifts his head onto his lap as he pulls out his phone to ring the ambulance. 

“Yes, hi, I’m in Daerim, near the train station. I have a badly beaten up boy with me, please help.”


	2. (2) 건들지마 [Dont Touch Me]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys! This chapter is a little slow and boring, but i promise it'll get better as we get to the ot9 stuff!  
> Also, shoutout to my fellow Aussie stayssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss. Get excited for the poly aussie line stuff (yes, hyunjin is aussie line). 
> 
> P.S. Shout out to one of my favourite people, the amazing artist Tay! Follow him: 'kkulshin' on instagram for amazing kpop fan art. And my other favourite person, follow her stray kids fan account 'k_buwues'.

“Chan… Chan… Please pick up!” Changbin rings him for the third time, the bruised boy still unconscious in his lap. 

“Changbin, I’m so sorry! We were singing Fantastic Baby and got a bit carried away. Are you okay?” Chan asks, becoming worried by the last sentence as he hears Changbin’s deep breathing. 

“I’m in Daerim near the train station and there’s a boy with me and he’s really hurt. I called an ambulance and they’re coming but I’m just worried. I won’t be able to go to the hospital with him because I’m not family, but I really want to see if he’s okay, Chan hyung. He’s unconscious and I’m--”

“Changbin, calm down. It’s okay. Minho and I will come to get you. See you soon.” Chan replies, trying to stay calm about the situation for Changbin, but also freaking out himself. 

/ ~ / 

“Can I please go with him?” An exasperated Changbin pleads to the ambulance officers. Hearing someone yell his name, Changbin turns his head, seeing Chan and Minho get out of a car together and run towards him. 

“They won’t let me go with him Chan. He’s in a really bad state, I have to see if he’s okay.” Changbin tells his friends, his words hurried and eyes wild as he conveys the worry he feels. 

“Bin, I know. We’ll take you in Minho’s car tomorrow, okay? It’s too late now. You need to rest.” He says, turning towards a Changbin who is obviously still in some sort of shock after spending 20 minutes cradling a blood- covered and unconscious boy. Even after Chan’s comforting words Changbin can still barely focus on anything, his eyes moving haphazardly around the scene of the alleyway: from the pool of blood on the ground, to the same blood on his clothes and hands, to the ambulance with the boy being lifted and placed into it and to his friends beside him. 

“But… Why not now? Chan I--” 

“Changbin, you’ve been through a lot tonight. Please let me take you home so you can rest and then tomorrow we will take you to see the boy at the hospital near here. That’s sounds okay, yeh?” Chan says, once again trying to comfort the younger, whose eyes and breathing begin to slow as Chan places both of his hands on Changbin’s shoulders and draws him into a tight hug. Changbin wraps his arms around him, before replying: 

“Okay, hyung. Tomorrow…” Chan nods at the response, thankful that he knocked some sense into Changbin. Without moving himself away from Changbin, the two walk towards Minho car, Chan’s arm now around Changbin’s shoulders. 

Once in the car Chan gets into the back with Changbin, his arm still around him as he rubs soothing circles into his back. 

“Thank you Channie hyung. Thank you Minho hyung.” Changbin says softly, his eyes fluttering closed as he falls asleep in the crook of Chan’s neck for the rest of the ride back to his apartment. 

/ ~ / 

“Hi, I’m here to see a boy who was admitted here last night after an abuse in Daerim. What room is he in?” Changbin asks the lady at the desk of the hospital lobby. 

“Relation to the patient?” The lady asks, not looking up from her computer as she continues typing. 

“Umm… I found him and called the ambulance. I really just wanna see if he’s okay.” 

“Lee Felix. Here’s your visitor’s pass. He’s in Room 319, floor two, second door on your right after you leave the elevator.” 

“Thank you” Changbin says, bowing, before walking to the elevator to go to floor 2. So, his name is Fe-lix… he must be a foreigner like Chan hyung, Changbin thinks as he enters the elevator. 

Once he found the room he opened the heavy white door to see a sleeping figure in white clothes, in a white bed, in a white room. The whole image would have been stunningly angelic, if not for bruised ‘Felix’s’ face and blood-stained blonde hair. His face was no longer covered in dripping blood, all that having been cleaned, however his face was still a mosaic of different coloured bruises and different sized bumps. 

He sits down next to Felix’s bed, glad to hear that his breathing is no longer ragged and pained. On the bedside table next to the blonde boy was a folded coat and leotard, the outfit he now remembered him wearing last night. With the stress of the situation, it hadn’t clicked that it was in fact a leotard, one, that now that he looks closely at, is for Seoul College of Dance. 

Wow, he must be an amazing dancer Changbin thinks, now having the urge to see the boy dance. This, subsequently fuelled Changbin’s urge to make sure Felix get better, so that he could see that… 

/ ~ / 

Changbin goes back to the hospital on his next day off, which isn’t until Monday of the next week. He goes to the front desk to see the same lady as the Wednesday when he had first arrived, her face still locked to her computer screen as Changbin approaches. 

“Hi, I’m here for Lee Felix. I was just wanting the pass so I could go see him again.” 

“Oh, I’m sorry…” She says, finally looking up from her laptop screen and Changbin’s heart feels like it’s about drop in his chest as he prepares for the news she is most likely to deliver; that Felix has died.

“… He’s been discharged. But you’re the guy that found him, right?” Changbin, his heart a little lighter, nods his head in reply. “Well, he wanted me to give you this.” She says, handing Changbin a pink post-it note. 

The note had messy, scribbled writing that said ‘Thank you – Lix’. Changbin reads it, before bowing at the receptionist and leaving the hospital. He is sad at the note, even though he shouldn’t be. A boy he barely knew was obviously well enough to leave the hospital, maybe his family or friends picked him up? Yet, why did he feel this sad? For a complete stranger to have even left a note was pretty spectacular. But Changbin still wanted more, he would have wished to see that Felix was okay with his own two eyes and now there was no way to—

“Wait!” he exclaims out loud, startling an old woman next to him as he walks to the bus stop. Felix obviously went to that Seoul College of Dance, so Changbin could go there and try to find him. After work of course though… he did have a lunch shift at Woojin’s. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin walks through the large main doors of the college and is greeted by the bustling of students moving in all different directions, obviously each heading to their own respective classes for next period. Not knowing where Felix would be, Changbin began squeezing through all the students to try and figure out where the boy may be. 

Walking around aimlessly he eventually found a sign that directed him to the ballet/ classical section of the school. He walked past multiple classrooms, looking at all the sweating faces of the students dancing, their teachers watching them practise with their eyes trained for any mistakes. He studied the faces of everyone in each class, looking for the blonde boy, however after several classrooms he was still nowhere to be seen. 

Suddenly a loud noise started Changbin, the sound of a woman yelling at some poor student. 

“WHAT IS GOING ON WITH YOU? FIRST YOU MISSED 4 DAYS OF PRACTISE AND NOW YOU CAN’T MEET ANY OF THE STEPS. EITHER PICK UP YOUR GAME OR GET OUT.”

Walking towards the noise, Changbin heads to the last classroom on the right. As he looks through the window the scene makes his heart break. Felix’s almond eyes are red and glassy after being yelled at by his teacher. His sweat-drenched blonde hair is stuck, splayed around his face. The bruises from his ordeal can be seen on parts of his skin. He had obviously tried to cover them up with makeup, but the sweat of the harsh training had caused parts to rub off, creating areas of tender purple on his pale skin. 

Changbin, obviously staring at Felix for longer than comfortable, causes Felix to tilt his head in confusion at who this dude was staring at him as he practised. Becoming uncomfortable, Felix moves back into the formation of his ballet performance, Changbin noticing him limping as he does so. 

Changbin sits underneath the window, not wanting to further distract Felix from his dance so that he wouldn’t be yelled at again. 

Changbin decides to play candy crush while he waits, after a while a notification pops up on his phone. 

\--  
New message 2:03

Lanky boy: Umm… hyung 

Dark hyung: What did you do? 

Lanky boy: What makes you think I did something?

Lanky boy: I am offended. 

Dark hyung: W H A T D I D Y O U D O ?

Lanky boy: I may have accidentally chucked my new red shirt into the washing machine, not knowing that your white quilt and pillow cases were in there. 

Lanky boy: ...........................

Lanky boy: So your room is now black everywhere… but your bed… 

Dark hyung: HYUNJIN. I am going to kill you. If I wasn’t busy right now I would go home and beat your lanky ass. 

Right as Changbin sees another notification pop up on his screen, a bell resounds throughout the college. Standing up, Changbin waits outside the doors of Felix’s classroom. 

Felix exits last, turning towards Changbin as he walks out, his eyes going wide as he darts in the other direction. Changbin runs after the blonde-haired boy, catching up to him as Felix gets caught in a crowd of people. 

Changbin grabs his wrist and pulls him into the closest open room he could find. Once in the room, Felix pulls at Changbin’s hand, falling out of his grasp and colliding with the floor. Felix winces sharply in pain, grasping his side as he lay on the ground. Changbin approaches him, making the other scurry to the corner of the room. 

“I don’t have any money to pay for the hospital bills. So don’t bother tryna get any from me” He says, his breathing deep as he lifts his hands above his head, as if he thinks Changbin is trying to hit him.  
“Hospital bills? I can take care of that if you need…” Changbin says, stepping away from the terrified boy on the ground. 

“Then why are you here?” Felix asks, removing his hands from his face, but still cowering in the corner of the room. 

“Oh… umm… I was the guy that found you. I was walking home I found you and I called ambulance. I checked on you in the hospital the day after you admitted as well, but you were still sleeping. And then I went in this morning to check again to see if you’d waken up and the lady at the desk told me that you had left and she handed me this.” He said, showing Felix the note he had left for him. 

“I had no idea where you had gone, and I remembered that SCOD logo on your leotard so I came here to find you and… I’m rambling. Sorry.” He says, laughing to himself at his own awkwardness. 

“Anyway, I brought you something.” He continued, reaching into his backpack and pulling out two large cardboard containers and one small plastic one, before placing them onto the ground in front of Felix. Changbin sat down, across from Felix with the boxes between them. 

“Last time I saw you, you were so fragile and thin, so I just wanted to bring you some food. It’s from where I work. Do you like fried chicken? One of my friends makes it and it’s delicious. I’m rambling again, ignore me…” Changbin says, opening the containers to reveal two boxes of fried chicken and a container of radish. 

Felix finally speaks up as he looks at the food. “I don’t want your pity food.” He says, then turning his eyes up to Changbin. 

“It’s not pity food. Please, just… what if I leave? And… you take the food with you. Please.” Changbin says, closing the lids on all the containers and then getting up to leave the room. 

“Thank you.” Felix says, lifting his eyes and giving Changbin a small smile as he turned around, however Changbin noticed that the smile was one that didn’t truly reach the younger’s eyes. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin returns the next day after his classes to see Felix. When he approaches the boy’s classroom he sees his teacher’s back and her wildly swaying arms signifying that she was giving someone a pretty stern talking to. Once the lady leaves the classroom, Changbin could see that the person she had in fact been talking to was the blonde haired boy. 

Felix broke down as soon as he was alone, falling to the ground crying. Changbin watched the scene, his heart again breaking for the third time since meeting the boy. Changbin decides to sit down and give Felix as much time as he needs to compose himself, so as not to terrify him like yesterday. 

Eventually Felix left the classroom, his eyes still red from the crying. He sees Changbin and tilts his head, showcasing the cute habit he’d done yesterday as well. 

“You’re here again? Why?” Felix asks. 

“I just wanted to see if you liked the chicken.” Changbin says, walking towards Felix. 

“Um, yes it was very nice thank you.” 

“Good, cause I bought some more on my way here. I’ll leave it here. Please eat it.” Changbin smiles happily as he says so, before turning to leave. 

Felix thinks about the box of chicken he had scoffed as soon as the coast was clear of Changbin, and the other box he had had for dinner last night. It was definitely a nice change compared to the plain rice he was used to eating every day and his stomach grumbled at the thought of more. 

“Okay.” Felix replies quietly. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin continued his routine on Wednesday after class, dropping by Woojin’s to pick up some more food for class. 

“You never come in to get my chicken when you’re not working because you always say you’re sick of it. Two day in a row though… and Jisung has been telling me you’ve left him after class to eat lunch by himself. Sooooooooooooooooooo who’s the lucky boy?” Woojin asks Changbin, his hand on his hip as he quizzes the younger. 

“A boy… pfft. What you talkin bout?” Woojin raises his eyebrows at Changbin’s blushed response. 

“I have known you for over ten years, you can’t lie to me.” And Changbin knew that his hyung was right, he had known Woojin for longer than any of their other friends, their parents being best friends since before either were born. 

Succumbing to his hyung, Changbin answers “Fine. You know that boy that I helped when he was injured? Well, it’s him. I’ve been bringing him lunch every day because he’s so thin Woojin, I just had to.”  
“I understand Binnie. Is he a nice kid?” Woojin asks, always concerned about Changbin’s wellbeing. 

“Well… I haven’t really talked to him much. He’s in a pretty bad state with trusting anyone, so I feel there is a past attributed to that. I’m trying to get to know him though.”

“All good. Just, take things slow, okay? Let him know that you’re there not to hurt him. OH! And take lots of food for him to take home. I have way too much kimchi and seafood pancakes. Take them for him.” Woojin says, running out the back to prepare a picnic basket of food for Changbin to give to Felix. 

“Agh I love you Hyung! Thank you.” Changbin yells over the counter, hoping that Woojin heard it. 

“SOFTIE.” Woojin calls back, to which the younger sighed. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin walks into Felix’s classroom, the picnic basket in hand. “Hi Felix. I have some more food for you. But, today there is one condition.” Changbin says, to which Felix’s eyes widen in worry. 

“Oh I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just… I want you to eat with me.” Changbin says quickly. 

“Oh… um… okay. Would you like to go somewhere then?” Felix asks shyly. 

“Yeah, sure!” Changbin says, his grin widening, consequently causing Felix to return a small smile. 

“Okay, let me just patch up my make-up, I’ve sweated most of it off… and I don’t want people to see all my – yanno.” Changbin nods at Felix’s comment, walking to wait outside the classroom for him while he fixes his makeup in the mirror wall of the dance class. 

/ ~ / 

“So… you’re from Sydney too?! One of my best friends Chan is from there! That’s so cool. He would love to meet you!” Changbin says excitedly. 

Felix and him had long finished their food, which Felix had eaten happily, much to the enjoyment of Changbin, and they were now just having a casual conversation. 

“Really?” Felix says, also excited that there was someone in the area also from Australia. “I would love to. But, I’m not the best with people and I would really like to wait until my bruises heal.” 

“I understand. But warning, if I take you to meet Chan then you have to meet the whole ‘gang’. There is eight of us and they’re all my family. I love them and I know they’ll love a new friend in our group.” 

“Eight of you? Wow, do you all live in one apartment?” Felix asks, turning his head to look at Changbin, both of them laying down on the grass of a park near Felix’s school. 

“No, five of us live in my apartment. It’s a three-bedroom apartment – so two couples and then myself. Then three live across the road in another apartment complex, that one is where Chan, his boyfriend and his boyfriend’s cousin live.”

“His… boyfriend…?” Felix questions. 

“Oh yeah, all of us are super gay.” Changbin laughs as he says this. “The couples I said I live with, also gay.” When Felix doesn’t respond, Changbin continues: “Is that okay?” 

“Yes. I’m just… surprised is all.” Felix says, looking back up at the sky and smiling to himself.

“So… um… how about Wednesday next week? Your bruises should be okay by then and you can meet everybody. Unless you have plans of course. I don’t want to intrude on any--”

“Changbin.” 

“Yes…” He replies, nervous of what he has done. 

“I would love to. And I never have plans, I don’t have any friends here to make them with. But, I do have one condition. You gave me one, and now I get to give one to you. Whenever, you’re not working or not in class I expect lunch. Oh! And I want your phone for a second.” 

“Deal and Deal!” Changbin says happily, handing Felix his phone. 

After a minute of typing Felix returns Changbin’s phone before pulling out his own to type. A moment later Changbin gets a notification on his phone. 

\--  
New message 4:33

Lix: Hi hyung. Text me on the days you’re coming to see me. And text me details on the Wednesday night dinner if I’m allowed to go. 

Rather than texting, Changbin replies out loud to Felix: “Don’t worry you’ll be allowed to.” 

Felix smiles, his almond-shaped eyes closing into little slits, with little wrinkles forming around the corners. 

Right then Changbin knew that he was going to cop so much shit from the others when he introduced such a beautiful boy to them all as his ‘friend’.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> THANKS FOR READING THE 2ND CHAPTER.  
> FEEL FREE TO COMMENT ANY SHIPS WITHIN OT9 YOU WANNA SEE (thE ot9 relationship will be further explained later) OR ANY SPECIFIC PLOT IDEAS.  
> :))))))))))))))))))))))


	3. (3) Get Cool

“This is where you leave me then, hyung… Thank you for walking me home.” Felix says, smiling as he turns to face Changbin. “Remember to text me about next Wednesday.” 

“Definitely!” Changbin says, grinning as walks back in the opposite direction they came from, heading for the closest train station.

/ ~ / 

Changbin, still smiling from his day with Felix, opens the door of Woojin’s apartment, the smell of gochujang hitting his nose as he does so. Woojin, wearing an apron with a picture of abs on it, walks out of the kitchen and looks back at Changbin – his large beam signifying his happiness at Changbin’s presence. 

“Why are you happy?” Hyunjin asks, his head popping over the couch in the middle of the lounge room. Changbin’s look darkens as he looks at the boy located to his right. 

Bashfully Changbin answers, “I um… bought a new shirt today… It has skulls on it, it’s super cool, you wouldn’t underst--” 

“IT’S A BOYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY” Jisung yells, moving his head from where it had been laying on Hyunjin’s lap to accompanying the other’s on the top of the couch. Both smirked evilly at Changbin, before turning to each other and feigning a look of dramatic surprise. Jisung and Hyunjin came closer, their lips ghosting over each other’s as they begin to pretend to make out, creating obnoxious smooching sounds that fill up the apartment. 

“It’s that boy from last week, right?” Jeongin asks, his head also popping up on the couch on the other side of Jisung’s, his face peachy red after the fake make out session. 

“Where the fuck do you all keep coming from? If anyone else is here, COME OUT NOW.” Changbin yells around the apartment, it being met with Chan and Minho walking sheepishly out from the one of the bedrooms. “Wait… Jeongin, how did you know that it’s the same boy?” He continued, following the path of Jeongin’s eyes and resting on Woojin. “HYUNGGGGGGGG, seriously? I trusted you.” 

“It’s not my fault! Chan was wondering why you ditched Jisung yesterday at lunch, cause he was planning to surprise you guys while on his lunch break. And may I say, his powers of persuasion are amazing.” Woojin says, raising in hands in surrender. 

“What did you do to him?” Changbin asks Chan, who, along with Minho, has now sat on the other catch in the lounge room. 

“Well… last night when were um… cuddling, I said I would, um, stop the cuddle unless Woojin told me what was going on.” Chan said, blushing as he kept his eyes on the ground in front of him.  
“Didn’t sound like cuddling.” Jeongin whispers under his breath, earning a laugh from everyone present, except Woojin and Chan of course, whose looks of previous embarrassment turned to ones of horror. 

Minho begins talking, in an attempt to further horrify his elders, “You see Jeongin, when mummy and daddy love each other very much--”

“LEE MINHO SHUT YOUR MOUTH RIGHT NOW.” Chan yells, shutting up the boy, who then attempts to apologise by laying his head on Chan’s shoulder. Unable to resist his friend, Chan puts his arm around Minho and holds him tightly on the couch, obviously accepting his apology. 

“Anyway.” Chan continues, Minho’s head now in the crook of his neck, “What we didn’t realise is that Jeongin would not only hear… our cuddles… but also what I told Woojinnie. And he told Jisung and Jisung obviously told Minho and Minho told Hyunjin. At the mention of his name Minho nestles further into Chan’s neck and hugs him tighter, to which Changbin rolls his eyes, he always was such an adorable suck up, especially to Channie hyung. 

“And Hyunjin told everyone else.” At the sound of thus voice, Changbin moves to allow the owner of the familiar voice to walk into the apartment. 

“SEUNGMIN IN THE BUILDING” Minho yells, his head jolting out of Chan’s caress and leaning back like a wolf howling – before suddenly returning to its position on his hyung’s shoulder. 

“Um… okay. Moving on. I’m angry at all of you! Except seungminnie. I only trust Seungmin” Changbin says, walking over to the aforementioned and pulling him towards Woojin’s large armchair in the lounge room. 

Woojin goes back to the kitchen to finish dinner and Chan, leaving a pouting Minho, goes to help his boyfriend, so Minho decides to squish himself on the already too-full couch between Jisung and Hyunjin. He steals the remote off Jeongin, proceeding to turn on his favourite TV show that was still in the DVD player from last night. It was a show that Chan, according to his mother, used to love as a child and so she had sent him the boxset for when he was feeling homesick. It’s called Dance Academy, and the four boys on the couch we’re quickly entranced, paying no mind to Changbin and Seungmin. Except Hyunjin, who watched his boyfriend happily, glad that he was going to get some soft attention after a stressful few weeks of studying for his exam. He knew that he would get all the cuddles later on in bed, so turned his attention to the TV with the others, glad that Seungmin’s best friend was able to also vent out the affection that everyone knew the boy held deep inside under that ‘tough’ exterior he maintained around other people. 

Changbin sits in the armchair and pulls Seungmin onto his lap, wrapping his strong arms around the younger’s waist as he brings him closer to his own chest. Seungmin gives up, tried after a long day and wraps his arms around Changbin’s chest as the two cuddle together. 

“How was your law exam, Minnie?” Changbin asks, laying his head on Seungmin’s shoulder. 

“Okay, I guess. I don’t know how I feel about it.” Seungmin says, the worry clear in his voice, so Changbin lifts his head from where it has been laying on Seungmin’s shoulder so that his eyes could meet his younger’s puppy ones. 

“Trust me min, I heard you reciting those notes back to front weeks before the exam. I’m sure you aced it, our little smarty pants.” He says, kissing both of Seungmin’s cheeks lightly before returning his head to the other’s shoulder. 

“Thanks, hyung.” 

/ ~ / 

“Dinner time guys.” Chan appears before Changbin’s eyes, Seungmin still sleeping and wrapped around him. 

“Ugh, yep. Thanks hyung.” Changbin says, his tired eyes fluttering as he gets off the armchair, carrying the still-asleep Seungmin bridal style with him towards the dinner table. 

“Let me take him.” Hyunjin says, reaching forward and carefully taking Seungmin from Changbin’s grasp. Seungmin’s eyes open a little at this and he moves, readjusting himself in Hyunjin’s stable arms so that he has his arms wrapped around his boyfriend’s neck and his legs around his waist as Hyunjin sits down at the table. 

“YUM. KIMCHI FRIED RICE. THANKS HYUNG.” The youngest says to Woojin. 

/ ~ / 

“Ohhh, Binnie hyung, I forgot to tell you: I went back to your place today cause I left my phone in your room this morning when I was attempting to steal one of your hoodies – a story for another time- anyway, and I saw that you have a new addition to your room.” Jeongin comments, earning a cough from Hyunjin who had just choked on the sliced fruit Woojin had placed in the lounge room. 

“New addition?” Seungmin questions, walking towards to the couch to pat his choking boyfriend on the back. 

“HYUNJIN. I said the only reason I wasn’t beating your ass for turning my bed ensemble pink is because I was going to get a new set on the weekend before anyone could see it!” Changbin yells toward Hyunjin, who had just gotten up to get a glass of water to ease his now-sore throat. However, Changbin has other plans and tackles Hyunjin to the ground. Hyunjin attempts to resist, but Changbin is too strong, flipping the boy on his back, then sitting on top of him and keeping both his hands held tightly above his head. 

“CHANGBIN AGHHHHH, IM SORRY” Hyunjin yells, wriggling underneath Changbin as he puts all his weight on his waist, making it difficult to move. 

“JISUNG.” Changbin yells, to which Jisung runs to his side. “Grab his hands. MINHO. You come here too.” Jisung does as he’s told, holding Hyunjin’s writhing hands to the ground above his head. Minho is beckoned to Changbin’s face as he approaches, from where changbin whispers something to him. Minho smirks at Changbin’s request, running towards the kitchen. 

“Hey, Jisung, I have a question for you: NOONA, DO YOU HAVE A BOYFRIEND?” Hyunjin yells at Jisung as he looms above him. Jisung’s cringing at all the memories attached to that phrase cause him to let go of Hyunjin’s hands as he yells aggressively at the boy on the ground. 

In Jisung’s moment of weakness, Hyunjin sees hope, pushing Changbin and knocking his hyung onto the ground as he makes a break for it. However, Minho returns with what Changbin had obviously whispered at him to get: an eggplant, and he proceeds to chase a screaming Hyunjin around the apartment as he repeatedly screams no. 

Chan walk over and sits on Woojin’s lap as he sits in his grandpa armchair. He wraps one of his arm around Woojin’s neck and interlaces his free hand with Woojin’s on the older’s lap. 

“Kids.” Woojin says, his heart warm as he looks at everyone in the room, all the people that he loves; Seungmin and Jeongin snuggled on the couch as they watch Hyunjin’s nightmare come true, Jisung and Changbin holding Hyunjin as Minho rubs him down with an eggplant and of course Chan; the beautiful cherry on top of everything. 

He couldn’t imagine loving another person as much as these 7 dorks. 

/ ~ / 

New message, Tuesday 11:45

Dark Hyung: Hi Lix. My business lecture for today got cancelled and I don’t have work until the dinner shift. You wanna have lunch together? 

Lix: I finish class at 1. Meet me there :))))))))))))))

Dark Hyung: See you then :) 

/ ~ / 

“So… um… you don’t have to obviously, but you’re probably super sick of Woojin hyung’s cooking so I want to take you somewhere. Out. For. Lunch.” Changbin says, looking down at his hands as he rubs them together, nervous that Felix will reject him for basically asking the other out on a date. 

“Hyung. Hey.” Felix says, placing his hands over Changbin’s, which draws the older’s eyes up to meet his own. “I would love to.” He continues, and Changbin suddenly doesn’t know why he was even looking down, the sight looking up is so much better. 

Felix obviously decided to wear no make-up today, so Changbin could see his freckles. The afternoon sun coming in through the window of the classroom illuminates half of his face, casting a light glow on his smiling eyes and freckled complexion. He really couldn’t get over the freckles, they even covered his eye lid, which Changbin could see as the boy blinked his long eye lashes slowly. He is beaut—  
“Hyung?” Felix interjects, cutting of Changbin’s train of thought. 

“Oh! Yes, right. I have the perfect place. Follow me.” Changbin says happily, his eyes looking down at how his hands were still being held by Felix’s. Felix follows his eyes and his own widen as he realises and he lets go. His eyes now look sad, the sight dampening Changbin’s spirit just a little, but he brushes it off, keeping his smile as the two walk to their lunch destination. 

/ ~ / 

“So, you like sweets?” Changbin says as they walk together towards the counter of the brightly coloured café. 

“Um, yeah, I guess so.” Felix replies, but Changbin can tell by how the other still hasn’t removed his eyes from the cabinets full of cake that he was lying. “Fine, you go find somewhere to sit, I’ll buy us a slice of cake to try, yeh?” 

“Yeh’ Felix says, the tug of him removing his eyes from the countless cakes was slow, as if there was an actual weight on his vision that kept it locked on the cake, and a lot of effort was required to look anywhere else. 

Once Felix is out of earshot Changbin turns to the smiley gut at the counter, “Um, I’d like to get a slice of the red velvet, um…. Chocolate mint mud cake, the oreo cheesecake, the funfetti and oooh that carrot cake looks good. Oh! And two coffees. Wait, does he like coffee? Do I get hot chocolate just to be safe? Everyone loves hot chocolate, right? Um… one black coffee and one hot chocolate.” 

The guy at the counter giggles at Changbin’s own mini conversation he just had with himself, while reaching to box up all of his chosen cake slices. “Yep. Wow you ordered a lot of cake.” The guy comments, looking down at Changbin, his smile not faltering. 

“My friend and I just really like sweet food.” Changbin replies, his tough demeanour resurfacing. 

“Friend? Nice. Well in that case, here’s my number.” He says. The guy whose name tag read ‘San’ hands Changbin a slip of paper with his number drawn quickly. “And that’ll be 35,000 won, the drinks are on me.”

“Um… thanks…” Changbin says blushing as he hands over the money and takes the slip of paper from the counter. He walks over to the table where Felix is sitting. “So, I ordered you a hot chocolate cause I didn’t know if you liked coffee. And I didn’t know what flavours of cake you like, so I bought a few.” He says, placing the boxed slices onto the table. 

“I love hot chocolate! But, agh this is way too much cake Changbin Hyung, you didn’t have to.” Felix says, looking at Changbin as the older sat down across from him. “But, thank you.” He finishes, his small smile and head bow lightened Changbin’s heart as he began to open all the containers. 

“Whatever we don’t finish you can take home.” Changbin says, knowing that he won’t be able to eat much more than one slice. 

/ ~ / 

“You’ve got a little something…” Changbin says, pointing towards his own lips to show Felix where he currently had funfetti icing on his. Felix licks around his around his lips, which side note, makes Changbin’s stomach do a little flip, but he fails to remove the icing and so Changbin leans forward. He reaches forward to swipe his thumb over the icing, however Felix quickly darts his head, grabbing a napkin and wiping aggressively all over his own lips to try to remove the icing. 

At this, Changbin’s flipping stomach drops, 'is Felix scared of me touching him? It’s like the hand thing all over again'…

“OOOOH that boy at the counter likesssssssssssssssss you.” Felix says tauntingly, however it is another blow to the Changbin. 

“Yeah, I think so. He did give me his number.” Changbin replies, his sad eyes lifting as he attempts a happy smile. 

“You gonna ring him?” 

“Probably not.”

“Why?” 

“I have my eye on someone else.” The words slip from Changbin’s lips before he even has time to realise what he has said. 

“Oh… you do. Are they from your school?” 

“Um… yep.” Changbin doesn’t know why he is lying to Felix, but he just didn’t want to be the guy who admits his feelings and then makes the friendship becomes awkward because of it.  
Trying to change the subject Felix asks, “So, being so close with 8 boys, have you ever had a crush on any of them?” 

“Okay, not going to lie, I did have a crush Woojin, the eldest of our group. I’ve known him the longest out of everyone cause he was my neighbour when I first moved to Seoul. But, he eventually met Chan, an exchange student he housed when they we’re both in year 10. Watching those two together, after Chan moved back to Korea for senior year, I realised that I just loved Woojin and adored him as my hyung, it was nothing like the feelings that I saw between those two… Wow, that was really long winded, I’m sorry, HAHA.” 

“Nah, it’s fine, tell me more.” Felix says, happy to hear Changbin opening up to him. 

“So yeah, Woojin hyung and Chan hyung are a couple, basically the parents of everyone. Chan’s an English teacher at our old school and Woojin runs a chicken restaurant. They live in an apartment across from me with Jeongin, Woojin’s cousin. He’s the baby basically, and everyone treats him like one, much to his dismay. He’s pretty smart so he skipped a year in school and is in his first year of social work. I live in an apartment with two couples; Minho and Jisung, Minho hyung runs a cat café and Jisung and I go to business college together, he was in Malaysia for a several years and so he’s in my class, but is actually a year younger… I don’t know, school systems are weird. The other couple is Hyunjin and Seungmin. Hyunjin is an intern for an interior designer, but he should be a model DAMN and Seungmin, my little puppy, is a first year law student.”

“What about you Changbin.” Felix asks, his attention never leaving Changbin as he talked. When he talked about the ones he loves, his eyes light up in such a way that he doesn’t know how people could ever think that his boy was tough. 

“Hi I’m Changbin and I like dark. Nah, HAHA, Um… I’m in my second year of business college and I have a rap group called 3racha with Channie hyung and Jisung. I love horror movies, listening to music, long walks on the beach--”

“You DORK” Felix says, giggling at Changbin. 

“Damn, I have talked way too much. How about you. I don’t know anything about you except that you’re Australian and dance ballet”. 

“Umm… yeah I’m from Sydney. I moved to Korea on a ballet scholarship because, although my family is well off, they wouldn’t pay for me to go because they don’t want me to pursue dance. I don’t really have much to say… I don’t have any friend here… I don’t…” Felix trails off as his eyes begin to water. “I’m sorry I didn’t mean to drop all that on you.”

“It’s fine. But just remember, you can count me as your friend and I know that my friends are going to love you. Trust me. You can add them to your story, you’ll be more than just a foreigner with parents who don’t accept him. Ask my friends, some of them are still facing the consequences of doing things like coming out. We can all help you Lix, I promise.” 

“Thank you, hyung” Felix says, smiling sadly up at Changbin.


	4. (4) Young Wings

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For this chapter I decided to use some crack prompts from the Instagram page dearstraykids.  
> Also the *--* indicate English speech.  
> P.S. ‘Snag sanga’ is literally so Aussie, I hate using those words, but it literally means sausage sandwich*

“Heyyyyy, Jisung. Did you know that there are eight wonders of the world?” Hyunjin says as he walks out of their hyung’s apartment bathroom. 

“Okay, is this a trick question? Aren’t there seven…?” Jisung says worriedly from his position at the dining table, where he was currently doing homework. 

“Ugh, no. There are eight, have you SEEN my ass in these jeans?” Hyunjin says, sticking his ass out so Jisung can get a better view. 

“I’d tap that.” Minho yells from the couch. 

“I DO tap that.” Seungmin states matter-of-factly, high fiving Minho’s raised hand from over the top of the couch as he walks past.

“EVERYONE STOP TALKING LIKE THAT! WE HAVE COMPANY TONIGHT. ACTUALLY, LISTEN UP ALL OF YOU LITTLE SHITS.” Chan says, flustered as he exits the kitchen into the middle of the apartment. From where he is he can see everybody and their guilt-stricken faces, except for Jeongin, whose eyes are big and watering as he stares up at Chan from where he had been reading in Woojin’s chair. “Oh, not you Jeongin, baby, you’re an angel and we’re thrilled that you’re here.” Chan continues, walking over to give Jeongin his special fluffy pink blanket, to which the youngest accepts happily. 

“Now, tonight we are having company and I just want one simple dinner where we all seem normal. IF, and I mean only IF, he continues to visit can we slowly integrate Felix into accepting our warped domestic normality. OKAY?” Chan’s statement, which was being said with him once again in his floral apron, was met with multiple agreeing murmurs throughout the apartment. 

/ ~ / 

“Hey, Lix, you okay?” Changbin says, smiling softly at the boy next to him as the elevator doors close.

“What if they don’t like me. What if they think I’m bad company for you? I don’t want to lose my only friend Changbin. You’ve only known me for just over a week and you’ve known them years, I’ll never match up…” 

“WOAH WOAH, hey Lix. Look at me okay.” Felix lifts his eyes from the ground to look at Changbin. “It’ll be fine, I promise.” He wanted so badly to hold the other’s hand in reassurance, but didn’t want another incident like yesterday to occur, so he stuck solely to verbal comfort until the elevator dinged and the doors opened on the 10th floor. 

/ ~ / 

“So, what are these exactly?” Woojin says, looking at Chan cooking a mountain of sausages on the stove. “There’s bread… and sausages… and onion… and sauce… is that it?” 

“HAHA, yes Woojinnie, trust me. It’s an Aussie delicacy – a *snag sanga*. 

“HYUNGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGS, can I please help?” Hyunjin whines, sauntering into the kitchen with his shoulders low. 

“Get. The. Devil. Out. The. Kitchen.” Chan states slowly, eyeing off a pouting Hyunjin who is attempting to suck up to Woojin. 

“Well, I am cutting onions right now and Chan you need to go get changed. SO Hyunjin, once Chan has gone you can watch the sausages in the pan for me.” Woojin says, his eyes leaking tears as he attempts to cut the countless onions for dinner. 

A few minutes later Woojin decides that the first lot of sausages are done. “Hey, Jinnie, can you take that first pan off the heat for me.” 

“Sure, hyung” Hyunjin says, reaching over and picking up the pan with the stove still on. Hyunjin screams as his jacket catches on fire, he drops the pan back on the stove and then flails around trying to put out the fire on his wrist. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin gives one more reassuring smile to Felix before they walk into the apartment, the sight that greets them makes Felix freeze in horror and Changbin sigh in annoyance. 

“Well, what a great way to meet Hyunjin– the boy crying because the sleeve of his favourite jacket is burnt.” Changbin tells Felix, his eyes bored as he looks at the people who obviously hadn’t noticed their entrance through all the commotion. 

“The one tending to Hyunjin to see if his arm is okay, in the abs apron, is Woojin. The one in the floral apron is Chan. The one who you currently can’t see because that crying lanky shit is covering him is Seungmin. The two making out on the couch with no care in the world are Jisung and Minho. The one blushing that’s wrapped in the pink blanket while staring awkwardly at them– that’s Jeongin.” 

Changbin gives it a second more before yelling: “OI! WE’RE HERE!”, catching the attention of everyone in the apartment. They all scramble to stand up and run towards Felix to greet him. 

“Hi I’m Jisung, nice to meet you! This is my boyfriend--”

“I’ve already told him everyone’s names you don’t need to introduce yourselves separately as well, let the boy breathe.” Changbin says bluntly towards the crowd around them. 

“Changbin, it’s fine. Hi guys, I’m Felix.” He says smiling, but Changbin knew the smile wasn’t a comfortable one, he didn’t seem to like being the centre of attention. 

“HOLY SHIT” 

“Jeongin” Chan says sharply to the youngest who still wore his pink blanket wrapped around him as he stood in front of Felix. 

“Holy CRAP” he says, side eying Chan, “Your voice is DEEP.” 

“But you have such a cute face, Hyunjin he’s challenging your 8th wonder of the world image.” Jisung intercepts, poking his tongue out at the sniffling Hyunjin who was still sad about his singed jacket.  
“Now guys, he’s not on show, let him breathe. Shoo, Shoo” Woojin says, ushering everyone away to give Felix some space. “Now, Channie made the menu, but I usually do it, so I hope it’s not crap. But, he said it’s some Australian delicacy, like a *Snae-gu sin-ger.*” 

“*Snag sanga*” Chan corrects him, walking to stand beside Woojin. “*Hi Felix. I’m Chan, well you can call me Chris if you’d like. Um, yeah I haven’t spoken English in a while, sorry if its rusty.*” 

The pause is a little longer than necessary before Felix’s eyes light up and become wide. “*I have not heard that accent in so long, ugh mate this is so cool. I’m so happy.*” 

The two talk for a little longer, the happiness clear in their voices as they converse in their native tongue. However, Changbin and Woojin just stand there awkwardly looking at each other, not knowing much English and also not wanting to be rude and walk away. 

“* Well, mate, there’s dance academy on the TV, you go enjoy while I cook up our sausages. Sound good?*” 

“*Perfect*” Felix replies, his wide smile still on his face as he remembers that everyone else was still there. “Oh my god, I’m so sorry to you both, that was so rude.” 

“It’s fine.” Woojin says, “it’s nice to see Channie talk English again, I know he misses home and you must too. I think that you we’re destined to meet us, Felix.”

Felix looks at Changbin, who still hasn’t left his side, and whispers to him “thank you”. The two walk over to the free couch and sit down together. 

Across from them on the other couch, Minho reaches around Jisung for the remote to turn on dance academy. “Yo, where’s Seungmin and Hyunjin?” Changbin asks. 

“They went back to our apartment to get Hyunjin a new jacket.” Jeongin replies, squishing next to Changbin on the couch. He lays his head on his hyung’s lap and swings his legs over the arm of the couch. Absentmindedly, Changbin starts to run his fingers through Jeongin’s hair as they watch their episode of Dance Academy. 

Felix watches as Jeongin grabs Changbin’s fingers that had previously been in his hair, and just starts to play with them. Changbin watches the younger and when the two meet eyes they both smile wide at each other. The love present between the two was unmeasurable, the love that seemed to be present between everyone was. Felix’s becomes sad, he wants to open up to them like they do each other. He wants to be able to hug Changbin and hold his hand… but there are just too many memories that filter through his vision and glaze his decisions that stop it from ever happening. 

/ ~ / 

“So yeah, Channie hyung was stressing yesterday, so I told him to chill and he said ‘I am chill’ and I said ‘I thought you were dad’. I DAD JOKED THE ULTIMATE DAD, I AM THE REVOLUTION!” Jisung tells the table excitedly while he smothers yet another sausage in bread with sauce and onions. 

“… Hello revolution, I’m Dad…” Woojin hyung says quietly, looking at Jisung while smirking. Jisung meets Woojin’s smirk with his own look of blank shock. 

“A bitter defeat Jisung, sorry dude.” Seungmin says, patting the sad boy next to him on his back lightly.

Jisung clearly scarred looks at Woojin pleadingly, “I finally thought I had him. But Woojin hyung you will ever be my demise, you are… the ultimate dad.” 

Woojin stands up from his place at the table “why, thank you my kind subjects.” Everyone groans at this however; Chan speaks up: 

“*Babe, did you eat your dinner?*” 

“*…I’m fine thank you, and you?*” Everyone loses it at Woojin’s clearly wrong response, making the eldest pout as he sat back in his chair, his moment of glory above the members gone. 

“I’m sorry Woojinnie, I had to. Your head was getting to big for your own good.” Chan says, laying his head on Woojin’s shoulder as he took a bit out of ‘snag sanga’. 

“These are so good, *it literally reminds of those Bunning’s snags I used to get after footy on Sunday mornings*” Felix says as he shows Changbin how to make the perfect one. 

“*Oh mate, it so does. God, I miss Bunnings and Vegemite yummmmmmmm*” Chan says, and Felix nods from across the table as he hands Changbin the finished product. 

“Thanks, Lix.” He says, taking a large bite. “Mmmm, it’s good, would be better with some SRIRACHA though.” At the mention of the word sriracha everyone’s conversations stop and they look between Changbin, Chan and Jisung expectantly. 

“ILLUMINATED BY THE LIGHT ON MY LAPTOP, CHOP CHOP, I’M COOKING UP A HOTPOT” everyone except Felix yelled – he was too busy sitting there with a blank look wondering what the hell had just happened. Everyone looked at Felix and began to laugh at the poor boy. 

“You know how I said that Jisung, Chan and I have a rap group? Well the name of the group is three-racha, cause yanno ‘three’ and ‘ssri’ kinda sound similar, anyway it’s a dumb thing we’ve done since high school where when anyone mentions the word ‘sriracha’ we say a line from one of our songs.”

“Changbin, it’s adorable, don’t worry. And… I’d love to hear some of your songs someday,” Felix says, meeting Changbin’s eyes as he smiles softly at his hyung. Changbin blushes, before realising that everyone’s eyes were on them and attempts to change to subject, however is cut off- 

“Soft Binnie hyung, aww he’s back.” Seungmin says, poking his tongue out across the table to his hyung, who responds with his usual bored-eye expression.  
“Binnie hyung, huh?” Felix comments, raising an eyebrow for Changbin to elaborate. 

“Fuck you, Seungmin.” 

“WHAT HAVE I SAID ABOUT SWEARING AT THE TABLE SEO CHANGBIN?” Woojin says, pointing menacingly towards Changbin with a pair of tongs. “HUH?” 

“Sorry, hyung…” 

/ ~ / 

“How about a movie? Does that sound nice Felix? Why don’t you pick one? We have heaps in the draw over there.” Chan says, pointing towards a cupboard on the other side of the kitchen. “Yo, Bin, you’re not going, it’s your night to help with the dishes.” Changbin grumbles as he walks to the kitchen to help Chan and Woojin. 

Chan hands Changbin a tea towel before he begins talking – “He’s a good kid Changbin. You two seem like you’ll make great friends. The other boys love him already too, look at Jeongin with his head on Felix’s shoulder HAHA and how the others were chatting to him at dinner, he fits in really easy. I hope you keep bringing him back Bin.” 

“Thank you, hyung.” Changbin replies, Chan’s words always seemed to have a calming effect on him, he knows that his hyung always had his best interest at heart. 

“You like him, don’t you?” Woojin says, wrapping his arms around Changbin’s waist and placing his head on his shoulder as the younger continued to dry the dishes. 

“I… I don’t know. I feel like I definitely could, but I’m trying to stop myself and just become close friends with him. He gets weird when I go to touch him and is really closed off when talking about himself, so I feel like there are some things there that are stopping him from allowing himself to open up to me. I don’t want unreciprocated feelings, so I’m going to try and stop them before they surface too hard.” 

“Just, take things slow, okay? Trust me, I can see pain behind that boy’s smile. Take things slow and he’ll appreciate you for it. He most likely needs more time to heal, his attack wasn’t very long ago. And the fact that he is in Korea all by himself suggests something at home, remember when we first met Hyunjin? It was the same kind of thing. Just, take care of him okay, he’s a kid who doesn’t deserve what has obviously not been a very kind life.” Chan continues, walking up to Changbin and Woojin to cuddle them both. 

“Chan and I’ll finish the rest, you go sit with Felix and save him from Hyunjin and Jisung’s endless chatter, yeh?” 

“Thank you, hyungs.” Changbin says, his heart warm as he detaches from both of them and returns to the lounge room. 

“What movie did you pick, Lix?” Changbin asks, sitting on the couch. 

“Mirror, Mirror. Have you ever seen it?” Felix replies, walking to join Felix on the couch after placing the dvd into the dvd player. 

“Yeah, it’s a great movie!” Changbin replies. Jeongin once again decides to join them on the couch, however sitting on Felix’s side this time. Woojin enters shortly after, sitting his Grandpa chair, where Hyunjin then joins him by sitting on his lap. Minho and Jisung lay on the couch cuddling and when Chan arrives shortly after with popcorn for everyone, he sits on the beanbags on the floor, where Seungmin then sits with him, using Chan as a pillow while he enjoys the movie. 

/ ~ / 

“Yanno, Felix, you’re pretty. If you were in a fairy tale, you’d be Snow White”. Jeongin says, his eyes not moving from the TV as he does so. 

“Oh, um… thanks Jeongin.” Felix replies blushing. 

Changbin, curious at what Jeongin would say, asks “And who would I be? The dashing pri--”

“One of the dwarfs.” Jeongin replies with no hesitation. 

“WHAT HAVE YOU GUYS DONE TO MY NICE, CHILD-LIKE INNIE?” 

/ ~ / 

“Seriously, hyung, you don’t have to give up your bed for me. I can sleep on the couch; you don’t have to.” Felix offers, not comfortable in forcing the other out of his own room. “I can just go home, it’s okay” he continues. 

“Lix, it’s late. I don’t feel comfortable you walking home at this hour and Chan doesn’t feel comfortable with me taking you, so… just take my bed. Please.” He replies, and Felix realises that he isn’t going to win this argument as they walk to Changbin’s apartment and so succumbs again: 

“Thank you, hyung” 

/ ~ / 

“Okay… I’m confused by your aesthetic Changbin hyung…” Felix says as he walks into his hyung’s room. He is greeted by white walls, black curtains, white draws, black cabinets, a black bed frame, yet a pale pink bed. 

“I was going for a black/ white aesthetic, but HYUNJIN DECIDED TO MESS UP THE WASHING.” Changbin answers, being purposefully loud so that his mentioned friend could hear what he was saying.  
“DUDE. I SAID I WAS SORRY.” Hyunjin replies, to which Changbin scoffs. Felix smiles at Changbin’s bashfulness about his pink bed, before his eyes light up as he sees a blue and white plushie in the middle of all the pillows on his bed. 

“What is that? – IT’S SO CUTE!” Felix says, running up and grabbing the plushie to hold it against his chest as he falls backward onto Changbin’s bed. Changbin’s heart lightens at the sight of Felix, his hair messy after just collapsing onto the bed, Gyu in his arms and both of them surrounded by big fluffy pink pillows. 

“Oh… that’s not mine… Jeongin must have left it here… silly kid…” Changbin says, looking at the ground. 

Felix raises his eyebrow, “Well, then are Jeongin’s initials ‘SCB?’”


	5. (5) Maze of Memories Pt.1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so  
> a) Sorry this chapter is gonna be a bit shorter. I’ve done three of my exams and have one more exam this week so haven't have much time to write!!! But, I just really wanted to upload another chapter :))))). There’ll probs be a longer one out in a week and a half or so cause I’m going to Melbourne this weekend YEET. So once again... won't be able to write.  
> b) I promise that I know Hyunjin isn’t a total idiot, but I just keep portraying him as a dumb blonde kinda character (that’s not actually blonde haha). Sorry Hyunjin! Love ya lots jdjdjjdj*

Changbin groans loudly as he places the pillow he was using over his head. The night was uncomfortable on the way-too-small-for-even-Changbin couch, so Changbin was angry at being woken up after finally having gotten to sleep only a couple hours earlier. 

“Stop being a spoil sportttttttttt” Jisung yells from the kitchen, “I’m making you pancakes so shut up.” 

Changbin sits up, moving the pillow from his head as he blinks his heavy eyes towards Jisung who’s grinning brightly at his hyung. He turns his head and sees Seungmin sitting on the couch reading. 

“Morning, Min.”

“Morning, Binnie. Sleep well?” 

“Ehhhhhhh. Where’s Minho and Hyunjin?” 

“Hyunjin’s still sleeping and--”

“I’m here BITCHESSSSSSSSSSSSS.” Minho yells as he parades into the lounge room from his bedroom. He goes and drops elegantly onto Seungmin’s lap, wrapping his arms loosely around the younger’s neck. 

“Dude, I’ve said it before, but damn your thighs are great. Homo, bro.” Seungmin says, feeling Minho’s thighs as he sat on top of him. 

“Don’t you mean ‘no homo’?” Hyunjin says as too joins the conversation in the lounge room. Minho and Seungmin look at each other after Hyunjin’s comment before continuing: 

“Homo, bro.” they say simultaneously, earning a face palm from Changbin. Sick of his roommates’ behaviour he heads to his room to wake Felix up for Jisung’s pancakes. 

Changbin stops at the doorway of his room, the sight before him just too pure for him to not take a longing glance at. Felix is laying in Changbin’s now-pink bed; only his sleeping face could be seen within the mountain of pillows and pink blankets. His face was peaceful, the lines of care and toil had smoothed and virtually disappeared. Freckled eye lids closed against the dim light of early morning and his breathing deep and relaxed. The innocence showed on his sleeping face, the peaceful and serene dreams blocking out the dangers of the outside. His soft breathing making the world seem to stand still. 

“What are you looking at?” 

Changbin turns around quickly, his heart jumping out of his chest as he sees Hyunjin trying to lean over his shoulder into his hyung’s room. 

“AWWWW LIX IS SO CUTE, WHAT THE FUCK” Jisung says, also joining the group looking into Changbin’s room. Minho and Seungmin also walk up to see just how cute Felix looks. 

“AWWW. You never let anyone touch Gyu, you must REALLY like him.” Minho comments, and Changbin finally notices the top of Gyu’s little head poking up next to Felix’s own. Yeah, usually he would be angry… but, for some reason right now he just felt… whole. Until Felix had come into his life he had though that his 7 best friends were filling up his heart, but now he realised there was a special part of his own that longed for the blonde, freckled, Australian boy that currently lays in his bed. 

At Changbin’s lack of answer to Minho’s comment, Hyunjin grabs Changbin’s hand, causing the shorter to look up at Hyunjin’s softly smiling face. He could tell what Changbin was feeling and the fact that he showed this subtly meant so much to Changbin. 

“I’m gonna go wake him up. Everyone, disperse; act natural.” Changbin says as he walks into his room, toward his bed. He reaches toward Felix, brushing his blonde fringe off of his forehead. The younger stirs, letting out a light ‘humph’ as he does so. Changbin smiles, reaching out his hand to place it delicately on Felix’s shoulder. 

“Hey, Lix.” He says, shaking him softly. 

“Morning Changbin hyung.” Felix replies, his voice rough from sleep, making it sound even deeper – which Changbin wasn’t complaining about AT ALL. He also opens his eyes slowly, them still being heavy from sleep, and so he rubs them as he stretches out his body. 

Changbin gushes as he watches the younger wipe his eyes and face with the back of his hands, like a cat. “Sorry to wake you. I was just wondering if you wanted some pancakes?” Felix’s eyes shoot open at this; 

“I’d love some! Thanks hyung!” he continues, giving Changbin a wide beaming smile. 

He laughs softly, “Well, come on then. But, don’t bring Gyu, I don’t want you spilling maple syrup on him.” 

Felix looks down, having just noticed that he has Gyu amongst all the pillows he was cuddling. “I’m sorry hyung! The other boys told me how protective you are over him. I must have accidentally grabbed him during the night, I’m—”

“Felix” Changbin says, cutting the younger off. “It’s fine. I don’t care if you’re the one to hold him…” 

Felix’s eyes meet the floor, they no longer look excited for pancakes – rather they look… almost scared and it sends another blow to Changbin, who remembers that Felix doesn’t like him like that. He has to step things back a bit. 

“Um… yeah. Come on, the pancakes are nearly ready.” Changbin continues awkwardly as he turns around to walk back out to the kitchen. 

Felix joins Minho, Hyunjin and Seungmin at the dining table shortly after, still dressed in his clothes from yesterday because he had refused to borrow anybody’s. 

“Yo, Felix. You want plain pancakes? Or blueberry? Or chocolate chip?” Jisung asks from the kitchen. 

“Mmmm… one of each please.” Felix replies, beaming at Jisung in the hopes that he will be allowed to get his complex order. 

“Fine, but only cause your smile is literally a beautiful sun.” Jisung replies giggling, while he begins to split the pancake batter into three bowls – one for each flavour. 

“Why does he get to go firsttttt? I was awake before himmmmm” Minho whines as he walks into the kitchen and places his arms around Jisung’s waist and his head on his shoulder, while the younger attempts to place his first lot of pancakes into the frying pan. 

Having placed the batter in the pan, Jisung turns his head around to look at Minho on his shoulder. Smirking, he replies “I’m saving the main course for you later and trust me you’ll get the first serving.”, while also rutting his ass lightly back against Minho’s crotch. 

“YUCKKKK, GROSSSS” Hyunjin says, gagging from the dining table. Seungmin on the other hand was giggling at his adorable boyfriend, and his two horny best friends. 

Changbin however, was staring at Felix during the whole thing. Felix had the same panicked look as earlier in his room… and when Changbin had tried to wipe the icing off of his face… and when he held his hand… so it wasn’t just Changbin’s affections that made him uncomfortable. So, what was it exactly? All affection? Or just boy / boy? 

/ ~ /

“Thanks guy. I’ll see you again soon.” Felix says, waving to everyone except Changbin, who’s going to walk him out, as he leaves. 

“Are you sure you don’t want me to walk home with you?” Changbin continues once they’re outside. 

“Nah, its only 30 minutes away. I’ll be fine, it’s a nice day anyway” Felix replies, smiling softly to his hyung as he walks towards the elevator. However, he stops right before he enters and turns around to face Changbin, “Thanks again, hyung… I’m so glad I met you.”

Changbin watches as the doors close in front of Felix. 

“I’m glad I met you too Lix.” He continues, knowing that Felix didn’t hear him. 

/ ~ / 

“You dumb bitch, DID YOU JUST HIT ME WITH A RED SHELL?” Seungmin yells accusingly across to the other end of the line of boys, to where Minho currently sat. “I’m Mario! I shouldn’t be getting passed by Toad and that hoe Princess Peach.” 

“Leave Princess Peach alone! She’s a great racer, plus she has the cutest car choices” Jisung says, pouting as he looks left at Seungmin. 

Seungmin, Jisung, Changbin and Minho we’re currently sitting crossed-legged in a line on the floor of their lounge room as they all versed each other in Mario Kart.

“Seungmin honey, calm down. You know Minho hyung always wins.” Hyunjin says, laughing as he enters the lounge room. He sits himself down in front of Changbin and lays back into his silent hyung’s lap. 

“YASSSSSS, I WIN – AGAIN” Minho exclaims, pumping his fist in the air as he passes the finish line of the last race in their tournament. 

“NO. FUCK. Aghhhhhh” Changbin says, sick of coming second to Minho. 

“It’s okay Binnie, no one is good as me and that’s fine.” Minho says, taunting the other in all his winning glory. 

“Douche bag.” Changbin mutters underneath his breath, however Minho hears it and decides to continue his taunt of the younger. 

“You’re just angry cause I’m taller.”

“So, I’m cuter.” Changbin replies quickly, sticking his tongue out at his hyung. 

“That’s not even-”

“People love dogs, not giraffes. Now rematch me you pussy.” Changbin says, and Minho looks at him flabbergasted, before his eyes narrow scornfully. 

“He’s just being petty cause Felix leftttttttttt” Hyunjin chimes in, turning his head back so he could look up at Changbin. However, when he sees Changbin’s previous look of annoying glee become slightly sadder, he brings his head back up and turns around to face his hyung. He wraps his longer legs around Changbin’s small cross-legged frame and his arms around Changbin’s waist. “Who would leave this adorable face?” Hyunjin questions as he smiles brightly at his hyung. 

“Don’t call me adorable.” 

“Awwww Binnie, lover boy is gone, you can be your soft self.” Jisung says, laughing with Seungmin as they continue to annoy Changbin. 

“He’s not my lover boy UGHHHH” Changbin replies. 

“Fine then, not gonna admit it? Then give me back my boyfriend.” Seungmin says, raising an eyebrow towards his hyung. 

“No, I like cuddles” he replies, wrapping his arms around the back of Hyunjin’s chest and bringing him in even closer for a cuddle. Hyunjin turns his head and beckons Seungmin to come over, so he crawls over and pushes the Changbin/ Hyunjin intertwined ball onto its side, before jumping on top and cuddling them in pile. Minho also joins, wrapping his arms around everyone as far as he can, placing his head on Seungmin’s shoulder. 

“Come on baby.” Minho says, calling the lonely Jisung over to the pile. Wanting to be in the middle of the piles he manages to squeeze in between Minho’s hug and then under Seungmin so that he was on top of Hyunjin and Changbin. 

“Love you, Binnie hyung. No matter how much I annoy you – no matter how much we all annoy you – just know that we treasure you so much. You’re our little Binnie and you deserve the world” Jisung says, placing a light kiss on Changbin’s chin. 

“How your lips feeling Sung?” Hyunjin questions, to which Seungmin continues: 

“Yeah, you just kissed a razor sharp edge, you okay?”

Everyone, including Changbin, laughs at the comment and they all feel happy in that moment, content with their love for each other.  
*ding dong [A/N: if you read that as Jungkook, I love you] * 

“SHOTTY NOT” everyone yells, yet Changbin is too late and so sighs as he squishes himself out of the cuddle pile to go answer the door. 

He opens the door and sees Felix. 

“Oh, hey Felix! What’re you doing back here? I thought – hey Lix… are you okay?” Changbin says, his excited tone becoming concerned as watched the boy in front of him. Felix’s eyes were glazed, his hair sticking to his sweat covered face and he was swaying slightly where he stood. “Come inside. You don’t look so good” He continues. Felix begins to take a step forward however his knees cave in and falls forward onto Changbin. 

“Felix? Hey!” Changbin yells, struggling to hold Felix after the boy had suddenly fallen onto him, seemingly no longer able to carry his own body weight. He looks down and sees that Felix’s eyes were closed – he’d passed out. 

“GUYS… HELP ME… Something’s wrong with Felix.”


	6. (6) Maze of Memories Pt.2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay, so i was naughty and wrote while studying for exams anyway...  
> So yeah, here's Maze of Memories Pt.2! It's a bit slow and dreary, but hey it provides context about why Felix has been acting the way he has ¯\\_(ツ)_/¯

“Where is he?” Chan questions as he hurries into the apartment after receiving a worried call from Changbin after work. 

“He’s in my room.” Changbin replies, his face clearly still stroked with concern, even as his two eldest hyungs and Jeongin enter his apartment. 

Changbin, Woojin and Chan walk towards the pink bed where Felix lay, “You just said Felix was in trouble. But what exactly happened?” Woojin asks, sitting on the foot of the bed. 

“I- I don’t know. He stayed with us last night and he looked fine. He left here around midday and looked fine. But, then he returned a couple hours ago and collapsed into my arms. The boys helped me move him in here and he’s been asleep ever since. I have no idea what’s wrong with him – but I don’t think he’s sick. I think something happened either at home or on the way there.” Changbin lets out a loud sigh as he finishes, looking up at Chan’s apologetic eyes. Chan places his hand on Changbin’s shoulder and the younger finds himself ducking slightly into his hyung’s supportive touch.

“Woojin will make you some tea. You go out there and sit with the boys and calm down a little bit. I’ll watch over Felix. Okay?” 

Changbin nods in response, grabbing Woojin’s hand to help him off of the bed, and the two walk towards the kitchen. Now alone in the room with Felix, Chan goes and sits next to him on the bed, laying his head on the bed frame. From here he could see into the lounge room, see the concerned eyes of his friends as they watch Felix’s condition. Chan meets Jeongin’s eyes directly and offers the younger a small smile in response. 

“No… no” Felix mutters as he starts shaking his head slightly – still asleep. Chan looks down and watches as the younger begins to writhe around underneath the covers while simultaneously muttering and whining at someone in his dream. 

“Hey, Felix. Hey.” Chan says quietly, reaching down to grab Felix and shake his shoulder softly. Felix’s eyes dart open as he wakes up. The split-second look of pure fear in his eyes as he does so – before he registered who had woken him up – causes Chan the greatest feeling of heart ache that he has ever experienced. Felix begins sobbing quietly into his hands and so Chan reaches out and pulls Felix into his chest, wrapping his arms around the shaking boy. 

“*You’re safe now. We’re all here for you Felix.*” His native tongue seems to calm him down, with Felix slowly beginning to stop shaking as Chan continues to soothe him. 

Changbin enters soon after, his eyes widening as he notices that Felix is awake. “Felix. You’re awake! Are you okay? I’m sorry I left. I shouldn’t have. I’m--”

“Changbin.” Chan interrupts and Changbin immediately stops talking. “Stop blubbering. You’re here now and that’s what matters. Now I’m going to go tell the other boys that Felix is okay. You come here and help him, he needs you now.” Heeding his hyung’s words, Changbin replaces Chan by Felix’s side, laying on his side next to Felix, who mirrors his position. Felix burrows his head into the material of Changbin’s shirt, and Changbin’s takes in a sharp breath. 

“Is it… um… is it okay if I hug you?” Changbin asks, thinking of how Felix had reacted previous times when he had tried to touch the younger. 

Felix doesn’t respond verbally, instead just moves his head up and down from where it lay on Changbin’s chest. Changbin wraps one of his arms around Felix, and pulls the younger towards him by the small their back. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin wakes up as Woojin walks into the room a little later to bring them both some food. He smiles up at Woojin, who walks backs out – most likely to return again once Felix has also woken up. Changbin looks down at the freckled boy who was now breathing evenly after what had felt like hours of him crying into Changbin’s chest before he had drifted off to sleep. Sometime when they had both been sleeping Felix had managed to come even closer, both of his arms wrapped around Changbin and their legs also slightly intertwined. 

They mustn’t have been sleeping that long because Felix’s face was still blotchy, creating a mosaic along his face of pink patches and brown freckles along his pale skin. Even now Changbin thought he was beautiful and his heart ached with how much the boy had had to endure, even just in the few weeks that they have known each other. 

Not wanting to wake the boy he remains in the somewhat awkward positon, pulling the covers further around them. However, as he does he must have accidentally bumped Felix’s arm somehow because the boy’s eyes flutter open slowly.

He looks up at Changbin, “thank you, hyung.” He says slowly, his speech still laced with fatigue.   
“It’s fine, Lix. Just rest now.” 

“I’m sorry for just showing up here. I owe you an explanation – I owe all of you one…” 

“You don’t owe us anything. If you want to tell us you can, we’ll all be here to listen. If you don’t because it was obviously deeply traumatic, then you don’t have to tell us. We’ll respect your privacy. All I care about is that you’re safe”. 

Felix’s eyes water as Changbin finishes and he hugs his hyung one last time in a tight hug before letting go and sitting up. “No, I need to talk to everyone. I’ll go do it now while I still have the courage.” Felix continues and Changbin nods in response. 

Changbin hops out of his bed, and waits for Felix to follow him. The younger shuffles slowly to the edge of the bed and places both of his feet on the ground. As he attempts to stand up his legs crumple, however Changbin catches him this time, with his hands under the tired boy arms. 

“You’re okay, Lix.” Changbin offers as Felix begins to sob lightly again. Changbin places one arm along Felix’s back and moves the other to under Felix’s legs – picking him up bridal style toward the lounge room. 

Everyone is in the lounge room is silently doing their own thing, all staying to make sure he is okay, and that sight fuels Felix with a new wave of confidence. He has people who will listen to him. People that won’t judge him. 

As Changbin carries him out, Felix can feel everyone’s eyes on him. They all remain silent as they watch the two come towards the free chair in the lounge room. Changbin sits down, placing Felix to sit up on his lap. Felix looks at everyone sitting around the room, his eyes meeting each and every person’s and he feels his courage to begin talking slowly start seeping into his body. With one more look behind at Changbin, and the grabbing of his hyung’s hand, he was finally able to find his words: 

“Thank you all for not asking me as soon as I arrived what had happened, for respecting that what happened may be private. What happened today was one incident, however it is connected to a whole big thing that happened back in Australia. It’s something I’ve never shared with another person – let alone 8 at once.” Felix takes a deep breath, everyone’s attention undyingly locked on him as he does so, before he continues, “So… I walked home and arrived at my apartment on the other side of town. I had just unlocked my door and stepped into my apartment when I noticed that someone else was there. I turned around and ran back to the elevator and as the doors closed I saw someone running at me, but don’t worry I closed the doors before they got to me.” Hearing this Changbin tightened his hold on Felix’s hand. “I got out at the ground floor and ran the whole way here in complete panic, hence the exhausted and overly dramatic collapse at the door – sorry about that.” Felix says, laughing awkwardly at himself. Not wanting Felix to apologise for something he couldn’t control, Changbin places his other hand on top of their other already intertwined ones. 

“I know that the person that was in my apartment today came to take me away… to take me back to my father. Basically, my father and I don’t have a very good relationship. He owns a Korean / Australian car franchise that is pretty substantial, but he makes most of his money from drug smuggling between the two countries. He has some pretty bad guys working for him and I think one of those cronies was the guy at my apartment… I moved to Korea without my father knowing where I had gone. To be honest, I don’t know how he found out where I live, but that means I can’t go back there. He’s a well-known guy around here and so hates that I’m gallivanting around Korea and potentially ruining his image.” Felix takes another deep breath, however this one slightly more ragged as his eyes start to water again. “I just… ugh… I hate him. I can’t go back.” 

“He used to beat me when he found out I started dancing. He told me that it was ‘faggy’ and that a real boy should be out ‘hitting on chicks with their friends’ or some shit. I used to sneak out to practises and I would return to either a locked house, where I would then have to find somewhere else to sleep, or a violent father. To be honest, the first option was preferred, but of course the latter was more common…” Changbin drew Felix closer to him, not wanting the younger to break down again. 

“There was this boy that I had crush on and he used to come to my house when my parents weren’t there so we could practise our routine together. One night my Dad came home and found us kissing… and I honestly thought he was going to kill me… My mother called my local pastor, saying there was something off about me – telling him that she wanted to catch ‘the gay’ earlier. She wanted to pretend it never happened and so sent me away for a few months to a church summer camp for wayward boys. They told me I was broken and that they could fix me. The camp had classes where I, and many other boys, were constantly told that we were disgusting. When I returned home I felt terrible – I developed this anxiety around people. I’m scared that they’ll find out that… that I… like boys… and that they’ll react like my Dad. I just knew I had to get away from everyone and so I applied for Seoul Academy of Dance, where I got in on a full scholarship. I took some money from my mum to pay for flights over here and then have slowly used my savings to pay for that apartment I stay in, hence why it’s so shitty. Anyway… to this day I – I can’t accept that I’m” he takes a pause. “Gay…” the last word leaves Felix’s lips with a considerable amount of effort and Changbin knew that it was most likely the boy’s first time admitting it aloud. 

“Thank you for telling us Felix.” Hyunjin says, walking forward to sit next to Changbin and place a hand on Felix’s thigh lightly. “Now, I don’t want you to think that I am in anyway diminishing your past by telling my own straight after. I just want to tell you so that you know there is someone who has been through something like you and they’ve become happy.” He stops, motioning to Felix with his head as a sort of ‘can I continue’ motion, to which Felix replies with a slow, almost bowing, nod. 

“When I was in high school I was friends with all these guys here and then in year 10 I met this boy, you may know him, he looks like a puppy, has the cutest obnoxious laugh.” Hyunjin says, looking adoringly towards his boyfriend. Felix laughs quietly at the cute couple. “I told my parents I was gay and they kicked me out the house, so I went to live with Seungmin and his family. His parents are the most supportive people on the plant and they’ve basically treated me like their son for 3 years now and I haven’t spoken to my parents since. Trust me, Felix. Times are bad, sometimes that period is very long, but things always get better. We will protect you and we will help you, we promise. And of course, we’ll never judge you.” Felix’s eyes well with tears as Hyunjin finishes speaking and he lurches forward to wrap his arms around Hyunjin’s neck and hug him tightly. 

“Thank you.” Is all he mutters as he releases his arms and returns to Changbin, however sitting next to him this time rather than on his lap. 

“Okay, so we can’t let you return to that apartment.” Chan says and everyone else nods in agreement. 

“How about you stay with us? Jeongin’s room is pretty big and I’m sure he wouldn’t mind sharing. He didn’t shut up about you after he met you.” Woojin adds, laughing as he sees a profusely blushing Jeongin hide behind Minho’s shoulder. 

Felix laughs as well, before answering his hyung: “thank you guys for the offer… seriously, it’s more than I deserve and I’m so so thankful, but… um I would really like to stay with Changbin hyung. If he, and all the others staying here are okay with that, of course.” 

“It’s not more than you deserve. You deserve the world Felix.” Minho says. 

“You deserve people in your corner Felix. Let us be those people – let us become your weird, chaotically gay and loving family.” Jisung adds. 

“That’s basically a yes from everyone in their own words, and one from me as well. All that’s left is Changbin, although I don’t imagine he’ll have any queries.” Seungmin says, raising an eyebrow towards his hyung expectantly. 

“Of course you can stay. You can have my bed and I’ll sleep on the couch.” 

“BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO” 

“Jeongin! Seriously, what have you guys done to my baby?”


	7. (7) For You

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is honestly just a soft plot filler that I felt like writing. Sorry if it's really boringggg
> 
> P.S. OH MY WOOJIN  
> WOOJIN IS MY RELIGION

“Are you sure you’ll be okay, Lix?” Changbin asks, dressed in his work uniform and sitting on the side of his bed that Felix had slept in. 

“I’ll be fine, hyung. Seungmin, Hyunjin and Jisung also said that they have nothing to do today, so I’ll hang out with them.” He answers, giving Changbin a small reassuring smile. 

“Okay, I’m going to catch a ride to work with Woojin then. I’ll see you after my shift.” He reaches forward and places his hand on top of Felix’s very lightly, quickly retracting it before he left his room. 

“Have a good day, hyung. I’ll be waiting for when you return.” Felix calls out as Changbin is just about to close the door. He turns around, bowing his head curtly at the younger and then closes the door, his cheeks beginning to heat up. 

“I heard that.” Minho says smirking as he smacks Changbin’s butt loudly while he walks past. 

“HYUNG, I SAID TO STOP DOING THAT.” Changbin yells, to which Minho places his pointer finger upon the younger’s lips. 

“Shhhhh, the rest of the boys are asleep.” 

Changbin, still blushing, attempts to bite Minho’s finger, however is too slow and so drops his shoulders as he walks towards the front door to grab his coat. 

“You’ll take care of him. It may take a while, but I know you will.” Minho says, placing a quick peck on Changbin’s cheek as he too leaves the apartment for work.

/ ~ / 

“Lix, what are--” Jisung yawns before continuing “--you doing?” 

“I just wanted to thank you guys for everything and so I made you some breakfast.” 

“Mmm, smells good.” Hyunjin says, rubbing his eyes as he enters the kitchen as well. 

“It’s just omelettes and bacon, nothing special.” Felix heartedly replies. 

“Well, compared to Jisung’s usual burnt toast with eggs, this is restaurant quality.” 

“How rude!” Jisung replies, shoving his mouth full of bacon that he steals from the pan. “Ow Ow hot- hot- fuck.” Felix hands Jisung a water bottle, which he takes quickly to ease his burning mouth.  
"That is what you get for eating before Lix has served plates" Seungmin teases, sticking his tongue out at the whimpering Jisung. 

"So, Felix." Hyunjin starts, trying to change the subject, "what do you wanna do today? It's just us four and after last night we think you deserve some fun. So --"

"-- where do you wanna go?" Seungmin finishes.

"Hey! We finish each other's: sandwiches"

"-sentences." Seungmin replies flatly at the same time. 

"You did that on purpose, you dick." Hyunjin says, slouching in feigned sadness as he walks to the dining table. 

"Aw baby, you love me. I'm sorry." Seungmin says as he runs after his boyfriend and wraps his arms around his waist. Once Hyunjin sits down on a chair, Seungmin then proceeds to sit on his lap. 

"Blugh" jisung says, also walking towards the table with his now properly served plate of bacon and an omelette. Puffy cheeks full of egg he continues, "So, where do you wanna go?"

"I don't mind. Where do you guys wanna go?" 

"FELIX, WE WANT YOU TO CHOSE." Jisung exclaims. 

"Yeah, what's something you want to do in Korea. Something you've never done before in Australia." Seungmin offers, still sitting on Hyunjin's lap. As Felix begins pondering, Hyunjin cuts a piece of his omelette and brings it up to Seungmin's lips, who accepts it happily.

"My little pup." Hyunjin says adoringly, ruffling his boyfriend's hair. 

"Hmmm... Where I live there's no arcades. Well there's a crappy one next to the cinema but it literally only has air hockey and racing games. I'd love to see a Korean one like from the dramas!" 

"Wowwww you koreaboo." Hyunjin says, "Haha I'm joking, sounds great. But, just be warned I am quite the athlete." He accompanies his last sentences with a flex of his arms. 

"..... NO NO HYUNJIN NO." Jisung says laughing hysterically. 

"These dorks, I swear. But yes, an arcade sound great." 

/~/

"You know I love you dearly, but I am also going to slam dunk you into a trashcan at the first available possibility." Seungmin says, as Hyunjin scores yet another 100 point throw in skee ball. 

"That's fair." Hyunjin replies, then yelping excitedly when the scoreboard reveals that he has won. 

"Now Felix and I! And the winner will verse Hyunjin." Jisung suggests, jumping on Seungmin's back as the younger approaches him. "Don't worry Minnie, there'll be other games where you can totally beat Hyunjin's lanky ass." 

"Why you guys always gotta call me lanky? You puffy, squirrel-cheeked short ass." Hyunjin taunts, pulling Jisung off of his boyfriend.

"You know I don't like it when you make fun of my cheeks..." Jisung says, looking at the ground of where he now stood next to the skee ball machine. 

"Aww it's okay Sungie, your cheeks are beautiful. I'm sure Hyunjin didn't actually mean to be malicious, just like you didn't mean to be when you called him lanky. Cause damn, that boy looks a model." Felix interrupts, placing his hand on Jisung's shoulder. 

"HAHAAHAH" Seungmin laughs hysterically as he looks at the blushing boy clutching him and the blushing boy staring at the floor. 

"What're you laughing at?" Felix asks, removing his hand from Jisung's shoulder as he grabs the first ball for his round of skee ball. 

"Oh nothing. I just think you're gonna win the skee ball tournament. Jisung and Hyunjin are... Distracted." 

/ ~ / 

New message, Friday 12:27

Squirrel baby: your boi just called me sung. I'M IN THE NICKNAME STAGE OF FRIENDSHIP. AND HE CALLED ME BEAUTIFUL. And he said hyunjin looked like a model, but pfft who cares. 

Changbin read Jisung's messages while he is on his lunch break at work and there is the same feeling in his heart again... Is it jealousy? Hurt? Disappointment? Maybe all three... He has never been called a nickname by Felix, the younger had never called him beautiful. 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠𝑛’𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑘 𝑜𝑓 𝑚𝑒 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑦 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑜𝑒𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑏𝑜𝑦𝑠... 𝐵𝑢𝑡, ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑 𝑠𝑎𝑦 ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑛𝑡𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑦 𝑤𝑖𝑡ℎ 𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑢𝑔 𝑚𝑒. 𝐻𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑑 ℎ𝑢𝑔 𝐶ℎ𝑟𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑠 𝑤𝑒𝑙𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑜𝑢𝑔ℎ... 𝑀𝑎𝑦𝑏𝑒 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑡𝑟𝑎𝑢𝑚𝑎 𝑜𝑓 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑛𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑓𝑎𝑐𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑖𝑡 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑚𝑒. Changbin continued to let his thoughts run for a minute before he wrote his reply'  
Soft hyung: A. He isn't my 'boi'. B. Good for you. C. Hyunjin does look like a model, DO YOU HAVE EYES? D. Nice to see that you still haven't changed my nickname - I hate you. 

/ ~ /

"There's no 'i' in team, but there is in pizza." Jisung says as he pulls the entire tray towards himself. 

"... So you're not going to share?" Hyunjin asks, raising an eyebrow at his greedy friend. 

"I am not going to share... Except with Felix cause he called me beautiful." Felix laughs softly at Jisung's reply. 

"I think you're beautiful hyung! And you are great for cuddles" Seungmin adds, hoping to suck up to his hyung for some fresh cheese pizza. 

"You can only have some if you come sit on my lap." Jisung says, smirking evilly at Hyunjin, who eyes the younger with narrow eyes. 

Seungmin looks up at Hyunjin with pleading eyes, obviously expressing his desire to go get the pizza. 

"UGH I'm getting fried chicken you arseholes." Hyunjin says walking off, however not before Seungmin could grab his boyfriend's hand. Seungmin stands up, his hand still holding Hyunjin's and reaches up to give him a quick kiss on the lips. 

"OI" jisung yells, pulling Seungmin and Hyunjin's attentions towards him. His mouth is open in horror as Felix grabs the whole pizza and pulls it towards himself. 

"There is a whole 8 slice pizza here. We can have two slices each and if anyone is still hungry we can go buy another one. Is that understood?" Felix asks, scrutinisingly pointing his plastic knife at Jisung. "Now give me your plates" he demands, to which the silent Jisung, Hyunjin and Seungmin comply. 

"HAHA. Guys I'm joking." Felix continues, clutching his side and leaning forward as he laughs. With his warmth-bringing and line-eyed smile, he looks up "well, I was joking about how brash I was being, but not the dividing of the pizza, I'm not making Hyunjin hyung go get his own food”. 

He puts two slices on each of their plates, but hits the boys’ hands as they all reach for their respective plates. “Uh uh, you guys now owe me another game of that Dance Dance Revolution for fighting.”  
“Deal!” Hyunjin says, his eyes awaiting the pizza hungrily. 

Felix beams “YAY”, pushing the pate towards Hyunjin, Seungmin and then Jisung. 

/ ~ / 

Jisung bent over, grabbing his side “HAHA You finally have some competition Hyunjin.” 

“Shut up” Hyunjin grunts, his face red as he verses Felix on ‘Lucifer’ on the Dance Dance Revolution machine. The only other person he had ever lost to on this game was Minho and the fact that he may be moved to 3rd best of their friends was the only fuel he had left as they we’re nearing the last chorus of the song. 

Meanwhile Felix danced elegantly, the fluid movements of his limbs reflecting his obvious strict education of ballet that carries over the boundary of genre. The baggy shirt he had borrowed from Changbin swims around his small waist as he dances. His excelled fitness also meant that he wasn’t anywhere near giving up, he just focused on the moves and continued through the last chorus. 

Jisung and Seungmin grab hold of each other as they watch the previously even scores of Hyunjin and Felix begin to pull as Felix makes a stumbling mistake with the steps. Unable to regain his rhythm the machine declares the flustered Hyunjin the winner. 

Jisung runs up to Felix, “Aw, I’m sorry Felix. You’ll get him next time!”

“Thanks, Sung.” 

Seungmin grabs the tickets Hyunjin won from the dispenser and the four boys begin to walk to the counter – content with their couple hours of hard core arcade gaming and pizza debacle. Seungmin latches onto Hyunjin’s arm as they walk, “SO MANY TICKETS HYUNJIN WOWOWOW. You basically got a perfect score, we’re gonna be able to buy nearly anything *OMW*”.

“*O-M-W?*” Felix asks, pronouncing each letter slowly in English. “Like the English letters?”. 

Seungmin stands up – puffing his chest wide. “Well, Woojin is our God. He is our Dad. Our O’ holy father. And we love him.” 

“So *Oh my Woojin*?”

“*Exactly*” 

“*WOW, you speak English! And so well too! OOOOH and an American accent – I love it*”

Seungmin giggles, but is interrupted by Jisung “*I speak English too guys...*” 

“*AWWW Sung your accent is absolutely adorable, you both have to speak English more!*” 

“*G’DAY MATE*” 

Seungmin casts his bored eyes to Felix “*Ugh yeah, my boyfriend trying to get attention AGAIN. Hyunjin only knows a little – mostly Aussie stuff that Chan has taught him*”

Felix coos, “*I love this so much aghhh. You guys are so cute what the fuck.*” 

Eyes wide staring up at Seungmin and Hyunjin, Jisung whispers “He just called me cuteeeeeeeeeee.” 

“He called us all cute, dipshit.” Seungmin retorts, still keeping his voice hushed so that Felix couldn’t hear them. 

They approach the counter and Felix’s attention moves instantly from the other boys to a big brown teddy bear right in the centre of the counter’s prize display. 

“I want that teddy bear right now!” Felix says, trying to catch the attention of someone that works there. He finally does, asking “Hi! How much is the big bear?” 

“10,000 tokens” the female employ replies, her voice bored until she looks up at the four beautiful men before her. A pink hue creeps up her cheeks and she stutters, “U-um, but I can give it to you for less. How many tokens have you got?” 

“240…” 

“Uh, that’s a bit too ‘less’, I’m sorry.” 

“That’s okay, I’ll just save it for next time!” Felix said smiling to appease the employee, yet the boys could tell that he really did want that bear. 

Behind Felix’s back, Hyunjin notions his head at Seungmin and then towards the exit. He then signs for Jisung to stay with him at the counter. 

“Hey Felix, how about you leave your tickets with Hyunjin, so we can start a sort of group saving fund, and we go buy you some ice-cream.” Seungmin suggests, laying his arms around Felix’s shoulders as the two walk towards the food court. 

/ ~ / 

Felix is just about to spoon the last mouthful of chocolate deliciousness into his mouth when he sees Jisung and Hyunjin approaching. He cocks his head and raises his eyebrow as he notices the way in which the two are walking – shuffling awkwardly with their inner-facing arms linked together. Both of their other arms were behind their backs as if they were both holding some huge item. 

Seungmin runs behind him and places his hands over Felix’s eyes “Shit, you guys were supposed to text me when you were coming.” 

“I… forgot…” 

Seungmin laughs, “Of course you did Jinnie.” 

“GUYS. I’m here with my eyes closed.”

“Oh, right, sorry! Place it on the table you two. Yep. Now open your eyes!” 

“Your hands are there…” 

“Oh yeah” and Seungmin removes his hands. Felix looks in front of to see the giant teddy from the arcade. 

“oh my-“ Felix side eyes Seungmin “- Woojin. Thank you guys! I love it! But… how? I didn’t have enough tickets.” 

Hyunjin leans his arm onto Jisung’s shoulder “through the power of: my-beautiful-face. AND combining all four of our tickets together. It still wasn’t the 10,000 needed, buy hey, she did she say she would give it discounted. How much of a discount? Let’s just say she must have found me REALLY attractive”. 

“Straight Hyunjin entered the chat, if you know what I’m sayin.” Jisung says

Hyunjin winks at Felix, however his suave look cracks as he looks at Seungmin’s sarcastic ‘oh-is-that-right’ expression. “It was for Felix, don’t look at me like that babyyyyy” Hyunjin continues, pouting at his boyfriend. 

Seungmin sits down next to Felix, “fine, but only because it’s for Lixie. Can I call you that Felix?”

Felix grabs the bear and pulls it into his chest for a large hug, “Of course! I love it! And I love this bear. And I love this day. And I just wanna thank you guys so much for hanging out with me. Changbin was my first friend in Korea and… now I have you guys. Thank you…” 

Jisung leans into Hyunjin’s ear, “That was the fattest UwU ever. Felix cuddling a bear and calling us his friends? UGHHHH. Have. To. Tell. Binnie.”

/ ~ / 

All four of the boys walked back to the apartment together along the sidewalk of the busy Seoul street. They had just left the arcade, the wind biting their exposed skin as they began their walk. Seungmin and Jisung held hands as they walked, skipping ahead of Hyunjin and Felix, whom were both holding an arm each of the huge teddy bear. 

Hyunjin looks down to his left at Felix, the boy was looking ahead at Jisung and Seungmin with a blank expression. Of course a day at the arcade, although fun, wouldn’t completely side track Felix from his situation… Hyunjin sighed, causing Felix to look up towards him. 

They both met each other with blank looks, Felix smiling first – it was a reassuring smile, but nothing more, the happiness didn’t reach his eyes. So Hyunjin, like Felix, forced a smile. They both turned their heads back towards the road in front of them, before Hyunjin cleared his throat “you threw that game for me, didn’t you?”

“What—pfft- you… um--”

“Felix”

“How did you know?” 

“Dude, you’re in a dance school on a scholarship for ballet and you made a mistake on the final chorus of Lucifer, which we had already done multiple times earlier in the song… yeah, no HAHA… I just wanna know, why’d you do it?” 

“I… just didn’t want you to be angry. I’ve only known you guys for like two days, I didn’t want to intrude on anything. Especially when I don’t know how long I’m going to be here.”  
“What do you mean?” 

“My dad, if he finds me, he WILL take me back to Australia. I just don’t want to get too attached, put myself on your leader boards, in a physical sense HAHA.” 

Hyunjin doesn’t laugh “Felix, we’ve only known you for two days and already we all know that we are never going to let you – THAT’S INSANE. We haven’t felt so attached to someone since high school when we all met. That means that your special, trust me. I haven’t seen Changbin care so much for someone, that isn’t us of course, for a very long time. You mean a lot to him Lixie.” Hyunjin stops walking when he feels a tug in his hand from the bear. He looks back and sees that Felix has stopped walking, his eyes full of tears. 

“Hey, Felix. I’m sorry.” Hyunjin says, walking closer to Felix and placing his hand on the younger’s freckled cheek. 

“Sorry, I’m a mess at the moment.” 

“You have a right to be. AND! I have a proposition: someone as beautiful as you shouldn’t have to walk. Get on my back, I’ll give you and your bear a piggy back ride.” 

“Fine, but only if you think of a name for our apartment’s bear child.” 

Hyunjin turns and bends down, “Hmm… how about kkami?” I’ve always thought that name was adorable.” 

“Perfect!” Felix yelps, jumping onto Hyunjin’s back, who runs to catch up with the still-skipping Jisung and Seungmin duo. 

/ ~ / 

Later that night Changbin enters the apartment, “HI BINNIE HYUNG” Jeongin yells, running up to latch his arms around Changbin as he walks in the door. 

Changbin leans into Jeongin’s neck, cuddling the youngest, “Hi Innie, I’m so happt that my soft boy is here today. I missed you, are you staying over?” 

“I missed you too. And is that okay, hyung?” 

“Of course my little fox, you don’t even have to ask – you know that” He says, detaching from their hug and ruffling Jeongin’s hair. 

“Do you wanna sleep with me again?”

“It’s late and I already told Seungminnie and Hyunjinnie that I would join them. Sorry hyung!” 

He reaches out to squish Jeongin’s cheeks before speaking, “All good. I’ll see you in the morning then.” 

“Night hyungie” Jeongin says, running towards Seungmin and Hyunjin’s bedroom. 

Changbin was out late because of work and then he had spent some time composing at a nearby café, so he presumed that Felix would be asleep by now. And he was correct, as he quietly opened the door Felix’s soft snoring filled the room. 

Changbin smiled as he walked to his draws to grab a change of clothes and some pillows and blankets for the couch. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin awoke to the sound of someone standing above him and speaking softly: “Changbin, you awake?” 

“Mmm Lix. What’s the matter?” he says, opening his eyes to see Felix’s face in the soft glow of the moon light that enters through the window of the apartment. 

His face looked pale, his hair stuck to his forehead with sweat and he seemed out of breath as he continued, “I had a nightmare, can I please sleep with you? I don’t want to be alone.”  
“Um… this couch is too small for two people.” 

“Oh, yeah I get it. Sorry that’s a really weird request at 2am, I’ll just go back to--”

“Felix.”

“Yeah?” 

“I just meant that let’s go to my bed together, rather than you come here to the couch.” 

Felix turns his head, even though he knew Changbin wouldn’t be able to see the blush escaping his collar in this dim light. “Oh… yeah.” 

They walk to the bed together, Changbin entering first to lay next to the wall, and Felix getting in after him. 

Felix turns onto his side to face Changbin, “how was work? I waited for you”. 

“Yeah sorry. After work I was in a really creative mood, I’ve felt a lot of different emotions recently and I just needed to write the down. I lost track of time. Sorry Felix. But, how was the arcade?”  
“Good. The boys all put their tickets together to get me the giant teddy bear, who we named Kkami. I loved today, and it definitely helped… but I still can’t help but think about everything.”  
“Don’t worry Felix, no one expects you to get over your ordeal after one happy day. I’m just glad that you came back to us yesterday, that you accepted us enough to open up to us.”  
Although the two of them aren’t touching and are on opposite sides of the bed, Changbin still feels happy. 

“Thank you Changbin.”

The two just lay there for a while, neither sleeping, when suddenly Felix speaks “You know, I kinda like the pink quilt covers.” 

At that moment Changbin decided to keep them for just a little while longer.


	8. Hoodie Season

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 5.4k work update??? HELL YEAH, I'M PROUD.   
> Also, I just wrote an alpha/beta Woochan one shot if you wanna read it... :)))))))))

/ A few weeks later / 

Changbin wakes up to the feeling of his right leg being dead due to the weight placed upon by it by a certain freckled male that was lying next to him. Changbin and Felix have shared his bed together for the past few weeks, each morning it seems that Felix subconsciously moves a little closer. The first night they had shared, Changbin had woken up to Felix still on the very edge of the other side of the bed. And now, Felix has his head only about a foot from Changbin’s– however the younger’s body was laying diagonally, so from his head he was at such an angle that during the night he had ended up with his lower half draping across one of Changbin’s legs; hence the now-dead feeling. 

Although it was uncomfortable, Changbin could see on his alarm clock that it was still only 6:32 on a Saturday morning, so he doesn’t have the heart to wake the peaceful boy. He just lays there, smiling softly to himself as he watches the upheaving and dropping of Felix’s chest. 

At one point as he watches, he sees a slight yawn catch in Felix’s throat, making him let out a slight ‘humph’ noise. He stirs as he does this, rolling to face Changbin (hence removing himself from the older’s leg). Felix’s freckled eye lids flutter open, and with puffy eyes he looks up to Changbin. 

“Morning hyung” he says, his eyes still heavy with sleep as he continues talking with his deep, morning-caked voice, “how did you sleep?” 

“Very well.” And before he even knows what he’s saying his lips continue, “I have been these past few weeks.” Felix’s eyes widen slightly as he nuzzles his face into one of Changbin’s pillows – little did the older know that he was doing this so that the blush that was attempting to creep onto his complexion couldn’t be seen. Changbin silently coos at Felix’s head nestling into his pillow, and not wanting their conversation to die, he asks “So, it’s the first day after the end of the college term… What do you wanna do today? We have two weeks free to do anything – I’m so excited.” 

“hmpkhgjj” 

“Hm? Really? That sounds very interesting.” Changbin laughs, “Felix you’re gonna have to lift your head so I can hear you.” 

Felix obliges, tilting his head to the side so that Changbin can see his messy bed hair. “You look like a blonde Jimmy Neutron.” 

“Meany” Felix pouts, putting his head back into the pillow. 

“I’m sorry Felix.” Changbin says, still laughing lightly as he places his hand onto the back of Felix’s shoulder. 

Felix looks up suspiciously, “I’ll forgive you if you buy me bingsoo.” 

“FELIX ITS LIKE 4 DEGREES OUTSIDE” 

“Hmm… so? UGH fine, then I want cake.” 

“Deal.” 

Felix smiles brightly, pushing himself up from his stomach into a crossed- legged sitting position. He leans forward, placing his elbows onto the bed and sitting his head in his hands. 

The view of Felix acts as a match for Changbin; his heart igniting, and he has to stop himself from grabbing his phone from the bed side table and taking a picture. 

However, in the moment of silence, Changbin watches Felix’s face drop. “Actually… there is something that I have to do. I feel really bad about always wearing your clothes and the fact that you went out to buy me new pointe shoes for class… is there any way I could go back to my apartment? I need my leotard for upcoming finals, my professor is getting angry that I keep wearing normal clothes.”

“Okay, but I’m going with you. I might get a couple of the other boys to come too, just in case it isn’t safe.” 

“Thank you, hyung” 

/ ~ / 

“Woojinnnnnnnnnnnnnn these waffles are too hot. I can’t eat themmmmmm.” Jisung whines, stabbing the fresh meal that his hyung had just made for everyone in his and Chan’s apartment. 

“You’re too hot, I still eat you.” Minho chimes in, sliding his arm around Jisung’s slender shoulders. Jisung blushes and looks up to Minho, biting his bottom lip as Minho winks at him seductively.  
“One breakfast. I just wanted one peaceful meal, ONE--”

“Baby.” Chan grabs Woojin’s chin from the chair next to him as he says this, forcing his head towards him. “How about we change the subject from the two horny boys that are now eye fucking each other and not listening to me say this, yeah?” Woojin huffs in response, the younger placing a kiss on his cheek and dropping his hand from the other’s cheek before turning back to the rest of the people at the table. 

“So, what are you guys doing today? Apart from coming here and having by baby’s delicious waffles for breakfast.” 

Seungmin pipes up first, “I’m gonna pump out this assignment that’s due next semester so I can get it out the way.” 

Next Hyunjin, “and my boss my wants me to go with him to Incheon for the day to look at some of the architecture for our next project.” 

“Mmmm good job Seungminnie! And have fun Hyunjin! What about you innie?” 

“I’m hanging out with Jongho and Chenle today” the younger replies. 

“My baby is growing up so fast.” Chan says, dabbing away fake tears as he pulls Jeongin from the seat next to him into his lap. He also pulls over Jeongin’s plate of waffles and begins cutting them up and feeding them to the latching youngest that manages to situate himself sideways along Chan’s lap, with his arms wrapped his hyung’s neck and his head laying on his shoulder. 

“What about you, Jisung and Min?” Chan inquires, still feeding Jeongin. 

…

“LEE MINHO – HAN JISUNG. STOP GROPING EACH OTHER UNDER THE TABLE AND ANSWER ME.” 

The two being called out turn quickly towards everyone else, both blushing profusely and looking down at the table as they realise that they’ve been caught out. “We’re both working at the cat café today.” Minho mumbles, still not looking up. 

“No hanky panky in the store room again you guys” Changbin yells across the table. 

“Hanky panky? WHAT ARE YOU, NINETY-FIVE?” Jisung retorts. 

“FIGHT ME YOU LITTLE BI--”

“You’re calling me little? Come here Binnie boy, I’ll show Lix just how weak you really are.” 

“You two, seriously? Every single day we have to hear you two yell at each other. SHUT UP” Seungmin yells at the both of them. “Now Lixie, as Chan asked – what are you and Changbin doing today?”  
Jeongin’s eyes widen at the mention of Felix’s nickname, “AWWWWWW LIXIE” he coos. “I love that name, it sounds like a fairyyyy, Lixie pixie. OH MY WOOJIN that is so cute. And it suits you too, the blonde hair, delicate features, countless freckles – like little bits of glitter from a fairy wand. It’s so--”

“JEONGIN HAS A CRUSH.” Hyunjin interrupts and everyone erupts in laughter around the table, except Jeongin of course. 

Jeongin stands up, stomping his right foot defiantly, “I do not!” 

“You just spent 30 seconds rambling about how pretty he is.” 

“Well…” Woojin adds, “… he is pretty.” 

Everyone looks towards Felix, seeing the younger twiddling his hands as he avoids everyone’s eyes. 

“Look now you’ve gone and embarrassed Felix. Do I have to be the Dad and change the subject again?” Chan asks. 

Woojin coughs, drawing Chan’s attention towards him, “Excuse me, I’m the dad. But yes, what are you and Felix doing today – for the third time.” 

“Changbin and I are going to my apartment to pick up some clothes.” 

“Are you sure that’s safe? Let Woojin and I tag along, we’re not busy today.” 

“Changbinnie hyung was just going to ask if you guys would tag along!” Felix laughs lightly, “you read our minds.”

Woojin’s ears prick up at the mention of a nickname leaving Felix’s lips, “Changbinnie, huh?” 

“UGHHHHHHHHH” Changbin grunts, face palming at his hyung. 

/ ~ / 

“Hey Binnie, how long until you want to leave?” Woojin asks, looking up from his book that he had been reading on the couch in Changbin’s apartment, already ready and just waiting for the others. 

Changbin walks up to Woojin and puts his legs on either of side his hyung, before placing himself down into his lap, “Ehhh however long it takes Felix to get ready.”

Woojin drapes his arms around the back of Changbin’s neck “How do you feel about today?”

“I’m okay, I’m glad you and Chan hyung are going as well, that makes me feel better. I’m worried though, that something there may trigger him… you know? He’s been doing so well these past few weeks… I don’t want the sight of the apartment or anything that his father may have done there to hurt him” Changbin says, leaning forward to place his head into the crook of Woojin’s neck.

Woojin wraps his arms around his friend tighter, “Whatever happens, you’ll him help – we’ll help. But, he does have to go back, there’s no denying that. Plus, after that Channie and I will take you out for lunch and then you have your performance tonight.” 

“Yeah, I know. Just one question--” he lifts his head to make big puppy eyes at hyung “--do I get to pick where we go for lunch?” 

Woojin raises an eyebrow, “why? Is there something you really want?” 

“No, just something I promised Lix.” 

“You little cutie AGHHH. I swear I’ve never seen you be so soft with someone so quick. I was your neighbour since we were KIDS and I don’t think I knew you had this side until high school when we became close.” 

“Yeah, and then I didn’t leave you alone HAHA.” 

“I didn’t complain; your little latching hugs are the cutest thing in the world.” Woojin says, drawing Changbin in even closer with his arms and placing a soft kiss on his forehead. “My lil Bin Bun.”  
“Say that you call me that to anyone EVER and I will have no choice but to murder you.” 

“PFFT, you softie, what you gonna do? UWU me to death?” 

“UGHHHHHHHHHH” 

“What’s going in here?” Chan laughs, walking into the apartment after finally finishing getting ready back at his own. “I see my boyfriend kissing and hugging someone else when I haven’t even gotten my morning cuddles yet” he says feigning sadness and jutting his bottom lip out widely. 

“Awww Channie baby, come here.” Woojin says, standing up with Changbin still wrapped around him. “Group hug!” 

“NO NO NO NO, I’m little – I will be squasheddddddd.” However, his protests are futile as Chan and Woojin run together and hug around Changbin tightly. “I hate you both” Changbin whines as he is sandwiched between the both of them. 

“IS THIS A HYUNG SANDWHICH?” Felix yells as he walks out the bathroom. Woojin and Chan laugh and pull away from each other, Changbin then being able to drop from Woojin’s embrace and land on the ground in front of his hyung. 

Changbin clears his throat, “umm… you ready Lix.” 

“Yep” he replies, still laughing at the embarrassed Changbin. 

/ ~ / 

Chan looks at Felix hesitating with his key in the lock of his apartment door. “Are you okay?” 

“Yeah, just a little... nervous I guess,” he laughs awkwardly. All four boys had driven to Felix’s apartment and the youngest of them had been quiet the whole ride, just staring out the window at the snow that was beginning to fall in the mid-January weather. 

Felix places his key into the lock, letting out a breath as he opens the door slowly. All four walk into the apartment and are greeted by the sight of a complete mess: clothes strewn everywhere, cups and other kitchen stuff thrown all around the floor and everything with any ounce of glass broken. 

Felix doesn’t say anything as he walks around the apartment, he just goes into another room and comes back with a duffel bag, picking up all of the clothes left on the floor that weren’t torn. The other three just watch, not knowing what to do – feeling invasive if they help, yet also like nuisances just standing there. 

Chan finally speaks up, “*Hey Felix man, you want some help?*” 

Felix looks up, speaking for the first time since they had entered the apartment, “Nah, I don’t want anything here anymore. Changbin and the others said I could stay a little longer there so I just emailed the landlord that I’m leaving and that he can throw out whatever is here.” 

“I didn’t say a little longer Lix, I said you can stay as long as you need – even if that’s 20 years I wouldn’t complain.” Changbin says, walking forward to wrap his arms around Felix’s shoulders. 

“Thank you, hyung” Felix offers Changbin a small smile that doesn’t reach his eyes and it does nothing to ease the feeling that the three others still have raging inside themselves. “I’ll be back; I just have to check if something’s still here.” He says, leaving Changbin’s embrace advertently. 

Felix comes back a little later with tears pricking his eyes, “that arsehole” he breathes out before falling to his knees on the ground. 

“LIX” Changbin yells, running forward to sit next to Felix, who was hunched over his bent knees with his face in his hands as he cried. Chan and Woojin come closer to crouch down next to Felix but don’t touch him, scared that too many people may overwhelm the distressed boy. “Hey Lixie, what’s the matter?” Changbin asks, rubbing the small of Felix’s back from beside him. 

Felix lifts his head towards the others slowly, “my- my- Father- he” he lets out a guttural sob as he continues, “-took all my savings. I knew he would find it. I took everything from my bank in cash so he couldn’t take it and I hid it. The guy he sent found it, cause it’s gone and he left a message for me right where I hid it.” 

“A message?” Woojin asks. 

“Look in the bathroom,” Felix replies. 

Woojin, Chan and Changbin walk into the bathroom and see on the mirror, written in red lipstick: ‘I will find you, you dirty fag. Love, Dad’. “That’s sick” Chan utters, walking back out to the lounge room to see Felix. 

“*Hey, Lix. We won’t let him find you, okay?*” Felix nods at Chan’s statement, laying his head on his hyung’s shoulder when he sits down next to him. 

Woojin sits on the other side, “how about we just leave this horrible place behind? We’ll take your clothes and just get out of here– maybe go out for lunch together?” 

“Woojinnie hyung, do you solve everything with food?” Felix asks, laughing as he wipes away another tear that was threatening to fall. 

“Yes, food heals any broken heart. Plus, I think our baby Lix needs some fun right now.” Woojin says, holding his hand out for Felix. The younger accepts it, standing up hand-in-hand with Woojin and walking towards the door. Changbin and Chan follow them, picking up Felix’s duffel bag as they do so. Chan gives Changbin a small smile, to which Changbin returns, however his too- like Felix’s earlier- isn’t genuine. He was just worried about Felix, he made it seem like everything was okay. Felix distracts himself by doing things constantly, like practising, rather than thinking and dealing with his problems – he doesn’t want all of his bottled feelings to explode, he wants Felix to confide in him, but also doesn’t want to push the younger. 

/ ~ /

“So, I have an idea for lunch, you’re going to love it andddddd I we haven’t taken you there yet.” Woojin says, opening the back door of the car for Felix. Felix lets go of Woojin’s hand and climbs in, scooting over when he sees Changbin climbing in the back as well. 

They begin driving and Changbin watches Felix as they do. The younger stares out the window and silent tears begin to fall again. Changbin sees his hand next to him on the seat of the car and so places his own atop Felix’s – it was something that he often did lately to show him support, with the responses being a gamble each time. Whether he would become awkward and retract his hand or let him leave it there. Thankfully, today was the latter; Felix turns his head towards Changbin and his tears continue to fall silently. 

In that moment Changbin forgot that Felix may reject his next move, he just knew that he had to comfort him in any way that could. Changbin reaches over and undoes Felix’s seatbelt, then wraps his arms around the younger’s slim waist to pull him into the middle seat. He redoes Felix’s seatbelt in the middle, then places his arms around his waist again. Felix leans into Changbin, laying his head on his hyung’s shoulder as he continues to let the tears fall. Changbin rubs his thumbs over the side of Felix’s hips where his hands lay. 

Changbin looks up to meet Chan’s eyes in the rear view mirror, the older gives him a nod before returning his eyes to the scenery in front of him and placing his hand onto Woojin’s thigh. 

/ ~ / 

“WE’RE HEREEEEEEEEEEEEE” Woojin exclaims, pulling into the car park of a cute café. The café was on the either side of Seoul and so during that drive Felix and Changbin had fallen asleep in each other’s embrace. 

“I ship them so hard.” Chan sighs, not wanting to wake them. 

“No shit Sherlock.” Woojin laughs, “I definitely need a picture to remember this moment though.” Woojin snaps a picture on his phone and then reaches to wake them up. “Binnie, Lix. We’re here.” Felix twists in Changbin’s arms at the disruption, turning and burrowing more into his hyung’s side. Changbin however, doesn’t even stir, just continues snoring lightly with his head laid upon Felix’s.  
Woojin coos loudly, flinging his arms around at the cute sight, “I feel bad, they’re so--”

“CHANGBIN, FELIX: GET YOUR ASSES UP OR I’LL MAKE YOU PAY FOR YOUR OWN MEALS.” Chan interrupts, jumping out the car and running to the back door to force the two youngers out.  
The volume and actual content of the statement however seemed to be enough to wake the two, because by the time that Chan ripped the back door open they were both wide eyed and undoing their seatbelts. Changbin hops out, followed by Felix and they stand with Chan while Woojin gets out the car. 

“Well,” Woojin starts, “you’re gonna love this place. It’s Changbinnie’s favourite.” 

“Huh?” Changbin says, before relaising where they had stopped,“UGHHHHH I have to deal with that little squirrel again.” 

Chan hits his shoulder, “Stop that. You love him and he loves you.”

“I didn’t say I didn’t love him, just that he’s annoyinggggg.” 

Felix raises an eyebrow at everyone, “I am so confused.” 

“Just come inside.” They all follow Woojin’s orders, walking toward the small café on the corner of the street. The front walls were painted pastel pink, with simple white double doors and a small sign above the door that read: ‘Minsung’s cat café’.

“THERE’S CATS, YESSSSSS” Felix squeals as he reads the sign. He begins to run towards the door, the others following close behind while laughing at the over-excited boy. He pulls the doors open and all four step into a little square section at the front of the café that was fenced off from the rest. The café smells of freshly roasted beans and something a little sweeter that Felix can’t quite put his finger on. He takes a deep breath of the scent, the warmth of it giving him goose bumps due to the comparison of the cold outside they had just left. Felix squeals again, noticing cats hanging around on the other side of the fence meowing. 

“Hey, guys! What a nice surprise, come in!” Felix looks up to see Minho walking towards them, his usual work outfit that he left the house in, consisting of jeans and a button up shirt, was now accompanied by an ash grey apron reading the café’s name. 

Felix opens the gate with the same sense of excitement as when he had opened the main doors, and crouches down to pat the cats. “I love them all already AGHHH. How many cats are there?”  
Minho laughs at Felix getting bombarded by three cats rubbing up against him, “Well the three with you right now are Soonie, Doongie and our new addition Dori.”  
“I love you so much.” Felix says, rotating between rubbing behind each cat’s ear. 

“We have four more, but they’re either currently sleeping or getting attention from our other customers.” 

“Binnie hyung! How is my adorable baby hyung today?” Jisung asks, emerging from behind a counter, where he had just been serving a customer, and walking up to give Changbin a big hug. “Hi Lixie, hi Channie hyung, hi Woojinnie hyung,” he continues, giving each a hug.

“Come over here,” says Minho, ushering them to the pastel blue table in the corner of the room. “You guy’s will have your regulars, yeah?” Woojin, Chan and Changbin nod in response. “Anything I can get you Lix?” 

Felix sits down next to Woojin and across from Changbin and Chan at the table, “Hmmm, what are their regulars? I’ll see if there’s anything I like.” 

“Chan hyung has double shot black coffee– it’s his fuel source, Woojinnie hyung has a chai latte – our most comfortingly warm drink, just like hyung himself and Changbin has--”  
“—Double shot black coffee, like Chan hyung.” Changbin interrupts, clearing his throat. 

Jisung laughs loudly, hearing what Changbin had said, “WOWOWOW what a liar.” He sits down on Felix’s lap, wrapping his arms around the one-day younger’s waist and draping himself off of him in an attempt to look extra as always, “he gets an extra milky latte with three sugars AND Min hyung HAS TO PUT A LOVE HEART IN THE FOAM OF BINNIE POUTS ALL DAY.” Everyone laughs at the huffing Changbin who mumbles to himself under his breath as slinks back in his chair. 

“YES BINNIE IS VERY SOFT – BUT WHO IS THIS BEAUTIFUL LITTLE THING?” Felix screams, scooping Jisung into his arms, placing him on the floor and running across the café to pet a little speckled cat. Felix picks up the purring black cat, it’s fur adorned with countless white spots, there were even little dots of varying colour on its nose. 

“This is Yongbok, our oldest kitty here in the café. I bought him when I lived with my parents in high school, he’s my most special baby – the first cat I ever owned, the one that started my idea to create a cat café. I found him on the side of the street, he was the runt of the litter, so I took him and raised him as a kitten.” Minho says, walking up to join Felix and scratch his Yongbok’s ears.  
Felix’s eyes are wide, “Yongbok? What a coincidence!” he laughs, “that’s my Korean name.” 

“Are you serious?” Channie asks. 

Woojin claps his hands together lightly, “He even has freckles like you, that’s amazing!” 

Felix frowns, “He’s trying to get away, I think he’s tired. Aww baby, I’ll let you go now, see you soon Yongbok,” he places the cat on the ground and waves goodbye to it sadly. 

Changbin leans over the table “Your name is really… Yongbok?” he asks. 

“Yes… don’t you like it?” 

“No! I- I- it suits you” he smiles. 

Minho places his hand on Felix’s shoulder, “Now seriously, two new customers just walked in so Lix, what can I get you?” 

“Umm… Changbin’s latte sounds nice. Buuuuuttttt do you guys have food?” 

“We have cakes, tarts, cupcakes – stuff like that. Want me to bring you an array of different ones?” 

“That would be amazing! Thank you Minho hyung.” 

“All good Lixie.” He says, ruffling the younger’s blonde hair before walking to greet the two new customers. 

“Yeah, I gotta join him. Seya guys.” Jisung says, running to stand alongside Minho. 

“So, are you excited for tonight Felix?” Woojin asks. 

“Oh yeah! The 3racha performance! I’m so so so so excited to see you guys perform for the first time.” 

“Oh that reminds me,” Chan intercedes, “Woojin and Changbin have work at 3pm until 10, so you’re stuck with meeeee. Wanna come for a ride? *Jisung asked me to take him to the hair salon*” 

“*Yeah mate, I’ll go!*”

“*Cool,* we’ll pick him at like 5 maybe, take him to the salon and then pick up these two dorks from work and take them to the gig. Hyunjin, Seungmin and Jeongin will catch a ride with Minho.” 

“*Easy.*” 

“Here’s your drinks and cakes” Jisung chimes, walking out with four plates of different sweets and four cups on a large tray. 

Everyone says their thankyous as the drinks and food are placed on the table. Felix’s eyes widen at all the different things he can try, he reaches for his fork and looks up at his hyungs eagerly – all who notion that he can continue and so he dives into the first plate: a rainbow crepe cake. Through a mouthful of the cake he begins to talk to the others, all whom were calmly sipping at their still-hot drinks. “This is my last day before I go back on my diet and strict training schedule so I might as well make it worth it.” 

“Oh yeah, you have your recitals coming up.” Woojin says, taking a spoonful of food from another plate, “how far away are they?” 

“4 weeks” Felix answers, now moving on to trying a chocolate tart. 

/ ~ / 

Jisung sat in one of the salon’s chairs in front of the mirror with his hair freshly washed, looking through all the available hair colours he can choose from, “what colour should I get, Lixie?”

“Hmmm… ever had blue?” 

“Nope, but it sounds like a plan! What do you think Chan hyung?” 

“Anything will look beautiful on you Jisung darling.” Chan says, reaching over the top of chair to kiss each of Jisung’s cheeks. “What about you Lix? Wanna fix that regrowth?” 

Felix hadn’t had his roots done since before he had begun being friends with Changbin – around 7 weeks ago he thinks his last appointment was, therefore explaining the current state of shaggy, virtually half blonde/ half black hair. “I – um- uh- can’t afford it. So I’m just gonna wait until the black grows out a little more and then just cut my hair short to get rid of the blonde. 

“I’ll pay for you Lixie, as a sort of… ‘you’re an amazing person and I love you / introduction to the family gift,’ Chan laughs. “Pick any colour you want.” 

“Channie hyung you don’t have to I-”

“*Felix, please pick a colour*” Chan interrupts, walking over to grab both of Felix’s shoulders and, like he had Jisung, places a kiss on each of his cheeks. 

“Okay I will. But hyung, *seriously, thank you*” 

/ ~ / 

Jeongin runs up to Felix, latching his arms around his hyung’s neck and legs around his waist, “Hi Lixie hyung! Your purple hair is so pretty!” Jeongin pulls his head back from Felix’s shoulder to look at him face to face, “and you’re wearing a little bit of makeup. AGHHH Jisung you freaking genius. You really do look like a little fairy now Lix. SO PRETTYYYYYYYYYYYYY.” Jeongin squeals the last part, letting go of Felix so that he can walk hand in hand with his hyung into the club for the 3racha gig. 

“Wow Felix, you’re looking like a supreme snack. Holy shit.” Hyunjin says, hugging Felix once everyone had arrived at their reserved table – right near the front of the stage. 

Minho looks Felix up and down, admiring the younger’s choice of ripped black jeans and an oversized pastel purple hoodie that matches his hair, “TRUEEEEEE.” 

Everyone’s attention is drawn from Felix to the stage, where a young man introduces the first act of the night. “Back by popular demand after a short hiatus – the amazing 3RACHAAAAAA.”

/ ~ / 

Jisung and Changbin are first to join the others at their table, “hey, the owner liked the crowd we drew in, so free drinks YEE HAWWWW,” Jisung says, straddling Minho’s lap. 

Minho leans into to kiss Jisung deeply, “you did so well baby, you looked so sexy up there,” he says, then re-joining their lips for a second kiss. 

Changbin walks over to Felix, “I um… noticed your hair and makeup from the stage. It um- I mean you- look even more beautiful up close.” 

“Oh! Um thanks Changbinnie hyung.” Felix replies, patting the seat next to him so that Changbin will sit down with him. 

“Looks like I’m designated driver.” Woojin says, “But we all can’t fit in one car, so who else is going to be part of the super cool sober gang?” 

“I will,” Changbin raises his hand. Right then Chan also joins the table – the last piece of the puzzle. 

Seungmin stands up like he is about to give a great speech now that everyone is there, “Noweth is the timeth my friends to get blindingly drunketh.” 

/ ~ / 

“Jeonginnie is mine” Seungmin whines, pulling the younger towards him as they enter their apartment. 

Hyunjin argues by pulling Jeongin back towards him, “no. He’s mine.” 

“Hey you three drunk cuddle buddies. STOP FIGHTING OVER JEONGIN. Why don’t I tuck all three of you into bed together? Does that sound okay?” Woojin asks, leading all three to Seungmin and Hyunjin’s bedroom. 

“Only if Jeongin is in the middle.” Hyunjin mumbles. 

Hyunjin climbs into bed first, followed by Jeongin. He pulls the youngest’s back closer into his chest, spooning Jeongin tightly. Lastly was Seungmin, who climbs into the bed face-to-face with Jeongin and wraps his around the boy, and therefore Hyunjin. 

“Goodnight my babies.” Woojin coos as he leaves the room, shutting the door and turning off the light for his drunk, cuddly family. 

Woojin walks back into the lounge room of the apartment, seeing Jisung and Minho making out on the couch, Chan eating Doritos on the floor next to them and a worried looking Changbin carrying a giggly Felix into their bedroom. 

Woojin decides to deal with Minho and Jisung first, walking up to them and asking, “hey you two, take all of that” he motions his hands wildly, “to the bedroom.” 

Jisung pulls away from Minho’s lips, “mmm but I’m hungry.” Minho doesn’t even seem phased, moving from his boyfriend’s lips to his neck. “Do we have marshmallows?” 

“Umm… I don’t know, I don’t live he--”

“Do you think I can fit fifteen marshmallows in my mouth?” Jisung asks, between heavy breaths from the feelings of Minho’s suckling tongue on his neck. 

Woojin scoffs at Jisung, “What is wrong with you? You’re a hazard to yourself.” 

Minho however, detaches at Woojin’s comment, “-And a coward, do twenty. You’ve taken more in your mouth at once before.” 

“OKAY GUYS. BED TIME NOW PLEASE,” he yells, pulling Jisung out from under Minho and throwing him over his shoulder to carry him to his boyfriend’s bedroom. He places Jisung under the covers and right on cue, as Woojin had guessed, Minho follows after, joining Jisung in bed for cuddles. Woojin smiles at himself, that’s five of eight people put to bed, now for Changbin, Felix and Chan. 

“Hiiiiii babyyyyyyyy,” Chan says giddily. 

“Chan you’re drunk.” 

“I’m not drunk, that’s offensive!” 

“Okay then, tell the time”

Chan turns towards the clock on the wall, “I’M NOT DRUNK.” 

“Wow Channie. Yeah, we’re staying here tonight, I can’t be bothered to lug your ass over to our apartment at 2am. We’ll sleep on the couch.” 

“Can Papi get some sugarrrrrr on the couchhhhh?” 

“CHRISTOPHER.” 

/ ~ / 

Changbin walks into his room carrying Felix in his arms, the younger had refused to leave the car unless Changbin carried him. Turns out Felix was a whiney and clingy drunk, which Changbin honestly wasn’t complaining about. 

He begins to place Felix onto the bed, however grunts when he realises that Felix isn’t detaching his arms from around his neck. Felix tugs his hyung forward, causing Changbin to land with both of his knees on either side of Felix’s waist and his hands on either side of his head in attempt to not land on him. 

Felix draws Changbin closer by the scruff of his shirt, causing their lips to ghost over each other. Changbin’s heart races a million miles an hour, this is what he had dreamed of for many weeks now – to kiss Felix. However, although his heart was beating sporadically and his head was telling him to just move a millimetre further to kiss him, he still has this strange feeling in his stomach. 

He wanted his first kiss with Felix to be hot, which this one was definitely going to be if he initiated it, their hot breaths all over each other. But he also wanted Felix to remember it… be in his right mind when he did it so that there would be no regrets. 

So against all fibres of his physical urges he pulls Felix’s hand from his shirt collar and stands up. He pulls off Felix’s shoes, tucks him into bed and listens to his whines at the loss of his hyung turn into quiet snores. 

“Good night Lix. Sweet dreams.” Changbin says, leaving the room to go get a glass of water before he too joins Felix in bed. As Changbin walks out he hears breathy moans coming from the couch, and stops dead when he sees Chan and Woojin sharing an intimate kiss. 

“WHY ARE YOU TEASING ME?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The reason there is a cat called Yongbok is because after this series I am going to be writing a small prequel kinda thing where I talk about how everyone met, especially the whole woochan romance. I can’t have Felix in there because they meet him in the time setting of this story, so my friend gave me the idea to make a freckled cat called Yongbok.


	9. (9) Side Effects

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi guys!   
> My updates will most likely be more sporadic in the upcoming months due to end of my Year 12 (senior year for all those non-Australians haha) approaching. 
> 
> P.S. I know this story may seem like it lacks plot, but i promise you that the climax will approach in the next few chpaters - so please stick with me! I have lots planned :)))))))

“What if I just pour wine into my cereal instead of milk?” Seungmin asks himself aloud as he sits at down the dining table of his apartment in the late morning with a pounding headache – wine bottle in one hand and bowl of corn flakes in the other.

Woojin walks behind Seungmin, taking the wine bottle from his hands as he does so, “what if you didn’t?” 

“Hey hyung, they do say that drinking more alcohol is a way to get rid of a hangover, isn’t it Changbin?” Seungmin retorts, motioning for the only other currently-awake person to back him up. 

However, Changbin just shrugs, walking towards Seungmin, “why are you eating cornflakes anywayyyyyyyyyy? Wait a little longer and I’ll finish the big breakfast I was going to make for everyone.”   
“UGHHHH, what if I just eat both?” 

“Fine.” Changbin walks into the kitchen to ask Woojin – the only person awake who actually knew how to cook – if he could help making breakfast. 

As soon as Changbin walks in Woojin answers him without the younger even having to ask the question, “yes I’ll help make that breakfast you just mentioned. You have a big heart, but no idea how to work a kitchen.” Changbin just grins widely at his hyung in response. “Where’s Lix by the way? I saw him leave earlier this morning.” 

“Yeah, he’s at recital practise.” Woojin frown in response to Changbin’s answer, and for good reason – Felix was one of the most drunk last night, so was no doubt in a bad state today. 

Changbin thinks back to this morning, where he had been stirred awake by the sound of Felix’s alarm going off. The younger was again intertwined with his legs, however their heads were still separate like usual, and Felix had tried to shuffle out without waking Changbin – not knowing that he was already awake. 

Changbin startles Felix when he talks, “Lix, it’s 6.30, why are you getting up when you only went to bed like 5 hours ago?” 

“I shouldn’t have drunk last night. I have to go to class to practise for recitals, I’ve been way too slack so I told myself that yesterday was the last day of fun before I get back to my proper schedule.” 

“Are you feeling okay though?” 

“No, I feel like shit, but nothing that a couple aspirin from the 7/11 can’t fix.” 

“Okay Lix. Have fun.” Changbin says, drifting off back to sleep, still not aware now that he reminisces whether Felix said anything else. Changbin also wonders as he stands over the stove cooking the eggs, whether Felix remembered the near-kiss they had shared. He hadn’t bought it up, not even seemed phased by it this morning, but he was in a rush… 

/ ~ / 

“What are you doing?!? I WAS WATCHING THAT.” Hyunjin screeches, jolting off the couch to run after Seungmin who had just changed the channel while he was watching his favourite movie. “CHISOO WAS JUST ABOUT TO KISS GITAE YOU ASSHOLE.” Seungmin just laughs at his boyfriend as they run around the lounge room.   
(A/N: if you know the movie I am referncing here then I love you. If not - THEN YOU NEED TO WATCH IT)

However, Seungmin stops running when the door opens – the sudden halt causing Hyunjin to barrel into the younger. Hyunjin grabs the remote, “HAH. You thought you could-”, stopping talking when he too notices the person standing in the doorway. 

Seungmin decides to talk first, “oh… Hi Felix. Are you okay? I thought you’d be in class; did you get the rest of the day off?” He asks the question lightly, but when Felix looks up Seungmin knows that he definitely hasn’t been given the afternoon off for a good reason.

Felix stands in the doorway with his shoulders hunched and his head cast down in a sombre look towards the floor. His eyes are puffy, most likely from crying, and he has dark rings around them from the lack of sleep – he looks like a wreck. 

“Hey Lixie baby, it’s okay. Tell Minnie and I what happened,” Hyunjin consoles, walking towards Felix and reaching for the younger’s hand so he can lead him to the couch. Hyunjin sits down with Felix next to him, and Seungmin on the other side. Felix leans his head onto Hyunjin’s shoulder and props his legs onto Seungmin’s, so it looks like he draped across the both of them. 

“My teacher scolded me for being so slack today, she said that I am a fool if I think that I won’t be cut from the team this close to recitals. And that if I am as bad as I was today ever again that she will remove my scholarship.” 

Hyunjin rubs soothing circles into the boy’s hair, while Seungmin attempts to help him verbally. Don’t worry Lixie, I’m sure today was just a slip up because of last night. We shouldn’t have pressured you into drinking so close to your recitals, I’m sorry.” 

“Don’t apologise Minnie, no one pressured me. It was my own fault for not thinking, but I did have heaps of fun last night with you guys.” 

“I’m glad, and we will have more fun like that with you AFTER your recitals, I promise.” 

“Yeah, maybe no alcohol for me next time, it makes me do some things that I regret.” 

Hyunjin narrows his eyes at Felix, the comment striking his interest as he continues to massage the younger’s head, “you didn’t anything bad while we we’re with you – from what I can remember. So… what happened when we got back to apartment?” 

“Just something that… I don’t think I would ever have the guts to do if I was sober.” Seungmin and Hyunjin look up at each other, so that Felix can’t see. Seungmin raises his eyebrows at his boyfriend, who takes a moment before nodding slowly. ‘Something definitely happened with Changbin’ they both silently agree. 

“So, where is everyone by the way?” Felix asks. 

“Everyone is working, except Chan and Jeongin who are out looking at presents for Woojin’s birthday in a few weeks.” 

“IT’S HIS BIRTHDAY IN A FEW WEEKS – WHY DIDN’T ANYONE TELL ME?”

/ ~ /

Changbin stirs once again as Felix leaves their bed. He had been leaving every day for the past two week before the sun rose and coming home long after it had set – usually when Changbin was once again asleep. 

They had barely seen each other enough in that time to say anything other than good bye, let alone talk about the near-kiss and so it still remained a question to him of whether or not Felix remembered. However, this morning he had enough of the wondering, so he grabs Felix hands as he leaves the bed, “How are you Lix? I feel like I haven’t talked to you in ages.” 

Felix turns back towards Changbin and sits atop the bed covers, “I’m good. And yeah, I know, sorry Changbin hyung – I’ve been so busy with recital practise. They’re tomorrow night and I’m just really stressed.”

“It’s okay. I’m – Umm – Just wondering if you… perhaps… remember anything from the night you got drunk a couple weeks ago?” 

Felix’s eyes widen and he drags him arm away from the older’s touch harshly, “I remember enough” he says before walking out of the bedroom. 

Changbin looks down at his hand that had held Felix, ‘so he did remember. He just didn’t want to. He obviously wished it had never happened, and for good reason. Why would someone so beautiful like Felix fall for someone like me?’

Changbin blinks away the tears that threaten to spill as he gets up, knowing that there was no point in trying to get more sleep after that – he was properly awake now. 

/ ~ / 

Changbin pushes back the feelings of this morning as he walks into Felix’s school. He had decided that morning that he wouldn’t hold the younger’s stress against him, that he is going to help him in any way that he can and that they can discuss their feelings – or in Felix’s case; a lack thereof – after this very important milestone. He walks into the class that he had visited multiple times before, months ago when the boys had first met. Felix is dancing in front of the mirror, making eye contact with Changbin through it when the older walks in. He instantly stops dancing and walks over to Changbin, sweat dripping down every surface of his skin. 

“Is everything okay Changbin? Is something wrong at home?” 

“Oh, no… I was just coming to bring you lunch.” 

“I’ve… already had lunch. Sorry Changbin.” 

“But the bell has just gone for lunch… I thought it would be nice if--”

“I had an early one Changbin. Now, I’m really sorry, but I have to practise or the teacher is going to kill me. I’ll see you at home tonight, okay?” 

The words hurt Changbin, but he gave Felix a small smile anyway, “sure Lix, see you then.” 

/ ~ / 

“Binnie, are you okay?” Changbin looks up at Minho, the one who had said his name, and gives him a small nod in return. 

“Yeah, it’s just… well… not really…” 

“Is it to do with Felix?” 

“How did you know?” 

“I’m your best friend, of course I know. You don’t have to tell me exactly what happened, but trust me when I say that you guys will work it out. You both are so different around each other, you both light up when the other enters a room…” 

“Thank you, hyung.” 

Hyunjin is sitting next to Changbin and so after listening in on the conversation decides to place his supporting hand onto Changbin’s thigh. 

“What are you guys talkinggggg about?” Seungmin interrupts from across the dining table. 

“Just telling the boys that you deserve an award for putting up with me darling.” Hyunjin says, batting his eyelashes at his boyfriend. 

“You are my reward, Jinnie.” Seungmin says, pouting and reaching his hands out for Hyunjin in the most adorable way ever – with his bright blue sweater paws making everyone coo while they enjoyed the dinner Woojin had cooked for them. 

Meanwhile, Jisung smiles widely from next to Hyunjin and turns to Minho, “you deserve an award for putting up with me.” 

“Yeah, you’re a real bitch sometimes.” Jisung’s smile turns into a look of adorable anger – he crosses his arms and puffs his cheeks as they begin to turn red. 

“Now you’ve gone and made the squirrel angry.” Changbin says, getting a hit on the back of his by the ‘angry squirrel’. Laughter erupts around the table, a sound that quickly dies and turns into squeals of excitement as Felix enters the apartment. 

“HEY LIXIE” 

“HEY FELIX” 

“WE MISSED YOU” 

“WE HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN AGES” 

Et cetera fills the apartment. 

Felix smiles tiredly up at them all, “hi guys”. 

“Why are you home so early? I thought your final performance was tomorrow.” Chan asks, ushering Felix to join them at the table. 

“Yeah it is, but my teacher made all of us go home early to rest. I really didn’t want to, but she was very forceful about it.” 

“No, it’s good Lix, you need rest. Just have some dinner and then maybe do some stretching before bed, yeah?” Felix nods and smiles in response, barely able to sit down with nerves about tomorrow night. 

Woojin runs into the kitchen and returns shortly after with a small bowl of food for Felix, “Sorry Felix, I didn’t think you would be here for dinner tonight so I don’t have much left. I can always steal some from my plate if you’re still hungry.” 

He places the food down in front of Felix, making the younger’s stomach turn, “It’s okay hyung, this is plenty.” 

The rowdy conversation continues and ends with dinner once all plates have completely cleared of food by their hungry recipients – except Felix’s which remained barely touched. 

“Aren’t you going to eat that?” Hyunjin asks. 

“No, I think it’s my nerves, I can’t quite stomach it. It tastes lovely though hyung!” 

Woojin rubs the younger’s chin, “that’s okay Felix, your stomach must be in knots.” 

“But you look so skinny.” Jeongin says, cheeks filled with his last mouth full of rice. 

“That’s true Lix, *has anyone been cooking for you?*” Chan asks. No one answers, so Chan continues slightly concerned, “what have you been eating?” 

“I – I pack lunch every day.” 

“What do you pack?” Changbin asks forcefully, also noticing now in the lighten up room that he looked exactly like he had when he’d first seen him at the university – tired and with slightly sunken cheeks.

“Rice.” 

“We never have any leftovers.” 

“Changbin calm down.” Chan warns, his tone cutting off anything else Changbin wanted to say. Changbin was furious and he didn’t know why… why was Felix doing this to himself? It’s not like last time when he had an empty fridge because he had no money, he has food now.

Felix meets the angry eyes of Changbin and bursts into tears at the table. “I’m sorry hyung, I didn’t want you to find out because I knew you’d be angry. It’s just that I put on some weight while I was here and the girls in my class started to pick on me… they’re all so thin and I couldn’t compete with that two weeks before recitals so I decided to just eat less.” 

“Eat nothing at all you mean.” 

“Changbin” Chan warned again, his tone darker. 

Felix splutters out another sob, “I promise I ate something, I would buy something like a muesli bar from the café each day.” 

“Felix you need to take care of yourself. Who cares about those girls and what they say, you are special to me. To all of us. We don’t want this for you. You are important and valued, you may not value yourself like that Felix, but within the short time I’ve known you I thought you’d gotten better at seeing yourself the way we do – but I guess not.” 

“CHANGBIN. Leave the boy alone. I know you care about him, but this is not the way to say it.” 

“I’m going for a walk.” he continues, grabbing his coat before leaving the apartment. 

“I’m going to go to bed…” Felix says, standing up and wiping his eyes of tears as he continues to sob. 

“Felix, Changbin cares about you. He just gets angry sometimes…” Woojin says, standing up and wrapping his arms around the younger’s slender shoulders. 

“Thank you, hyung.” 

“WAIT!” Jeongin yells, “I have emotional jumper cables; I’ll boost you.” He wraps his arms around Felix, “…Just attach like so.” 

“…This is a hug.” 

“Exactly, is it working?” 

“Yes, Jeonginnie it is,” he says, leaning into Jeongin’s shoulder. 

“You’ll do amazing, our little fairy Yongbok hyung” he whispers into his hyung’s ear. 

“We’ll all be there rooting for you.” Seungmin adds. 

Felix nods, ‘detaching’ himself from Jeongin and walking into Changbin’s bedroom. 

/ ~ / 

Felix lays in bed a few hours later after practising his routine in the limited space next to the bed, stretching and then just laying while dwelling about everything that had happened. His pillow was wet with tears as he thought about how angry Changbin had been… 

Changbin enters his room, padding quietly across the floor to his bed, “Felix?” He stands next to the bed, looking at the younger who lays with his eyes closed to feign sleep. “I know you’re not asleep… I want to apologise, Lix. Please open your eyes.” 

Felix obliges, opening his eyes to stare at Changbin above him. His hyung’s eyes are wide, his hair a mess – most likely from the wind and him pulling at in agitation – and his cheeks are flushed red from the cold; he no longer looks angry. 

Changbin places his hand on the side of Felix’s face, the younger leaning into it before Changbin leaves the room again. He soon returns in his pyjamas and climbs into the other side of the bed. “Lix, look at me.” Felix does. “Come closer” and against his usual protesting to affection from his hyung, he moves closer. 

Changbin wraps his arms around Felix’s chest and places his face into the younger’s purple hair. Felix responds by wrapping his own around Changbin’s waist. 

“I’m sorry Lix… I was just angry. You’re so so so special to me and the thought of you purposely doing something like that made me so angry.” 

“It’s okay Bin. What I did was stupid, I just wanted to be the best I can so I can finally be praised. I never get praised by my teacher or any other students, I get made fun of – never appreciated. For once I just wanted to be the one who was told that they are good enough…”

“It’s okay, tomorrow will be your day. My Lixie will show them all.” 

/ ~ / 

“WOOP WOOP LIXIE MY MAN, ROCK THAT STAGE” Jisung yells through the theatre. 

“Shut the hell up, you idiot.” Changbin whisper yells, whacking Jisung on the back of his head. 

“Mum, Changbin hit me.” 

“Han Jisung be quiet! It’s about to start,” he seethes through a whisper. 

Although Felix is initially at the back left Changbin still only has eyes for him. The music starts and the beautiful freckled boy begins: 

He turns elegantly, his body in tune with the slow music. Yet, there is a sort of harshness to him, like he is someone who shouldn’t be underestimated. The warmth around Changbin grows more powerful by the second. His heartbeat growing more steadily along with it and each of Felix’s lithe movements. The dance is perfect; he is perfect, everything from his concentrated face – that also carries the emotion of the commanding song – to his feet that move to stay in sync. By the last beat, Changbin’s breath is taken away, and he knows the exact reason why. 

After the rest of the performances all the dancers come from back stage to join their families that were there to watch, and Felix does the same. He runs into the arms of the eight boys waiting for him – his own, non-stereotypical, yet loving and functional family. Congratulations and other compliments are thrown around along with hugs by everyone except Changbin. He wants to give Felix his own personal and in-depth comment later. 

“Now I brought a camera, so act civil so I can take a family photo.” Chan says, running to ask another of the parents there for help in taking a picture of them all. 

They all stand in a group with Felix in the middle and Changbin off to the side, until Jeongin winks at him and pushes him towards the centre. Felix looks at Changbin as he stumbles closer and smiles widely, “hi, Bin hyung. Stand with me.” The younger pulls Changbin towards him and slings his arms around his shoulders. They pose for the photos and without having to force it – Changbin smiles. 

/ ~ / 

“You did really well Lixie.” Changbin says, walking alongside Felix as they remain behind the rest of the group walking towards the car park. 

“Thanks, hyung. I feel like I could have made my moves more precise though, and my footwork was a little sloppy, I could have definitely done a lot bet--”

“Felix, you we’re amazing. I was silent your whole performance; I don’t think I even breathed the whole time,” he laughs, looking ahead towards the rest of their friends. “You we’re beautiful. I have never been so captivated by one person for such a long time. My mind had no other picture, no other thought, then you on that stage. You were amazing Felix and you should be so proud. No criticism could ever overpower the pure beauty of your performance.” 

Changbin stops talking and looks to his left to see that Felix isn’t there, he is a few paces back – Changbin hadn’t noticed that other had stopped walking while he had been talking. Felix is just staring at him, eyes wide and sparkling with some emotion… almost adoration. 

“You talk so beautifully Changbin.” 

“Only when there are beautiful things to talk about.” 

Felix walks forward to stand in front of Changbin. They look into each other’s eyes and Felix leans in slowly. He isn’t drunk this time and so Changbin does too, he closes his eyes as he approaches Felix, but then the wait is too long. He opens his eyes again and sees Felix just staring at him, the same look no longer there. 

“Are you okay, Lix?” 

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry. I’m so stupid. My father won’t get out of my head, those years of being told I was disgusting won’t get out my head.”

Changbin wraps his arms tightly around Felix, “it’s okay Felix.”

“No it’s not, I really, really wanted to kiss you. I like you Changbin. I like you a lot.” 

“I… I like you too Felix. But, how about we go slow. Is this okay?” He says as he kisses Felix’s left cheek and then his right. 

“Yes. It’s more than okay. It’s perfect.” Felix reaches to hold Changbin’s hand and they run together to catch up with the others.


	10. (10) My Side

// A few weeks later / /

Chan walks over to Woojin, who was currently preparing breakfast before work, and places his arms around his boyfriend’s waist, “happy birthday, baby.” 

Woojin turns around in Chan’s arms and gives him a bright smile. “Thank you Channie. I’m so excited for the party tonight!” 

“How do you know about that?!” 

“Oh come on, you and the guys haven’t mentioned anything about my birthday for the past few weeks, most likely because you knew if you did that someone would spill the beans… plus the hallway cupboard exploded yesterday because it was so full and…” he laughs heartedly, “… all the decorations that you’d shoved in there fell out – including a ‘happy birthday Woojin’ banner.” 

Chan just pouts, he had really wanted to finally surprise Woojin with a birthday party this year. Woojin leans his head forward and kisses Chan’s forehead a few times. “I’m sorry, bub. I can act surprised if you’d like.” 

“No, that would make me feel worse. I just wanted to surprise you.” 

Woojin moves to kissing his left cheek. “I’ll---” He moves to his right cheek “---still love it---” his jaw “---anyway.” And finally he lifts the younger’s chin up so that he can kiss his frowning lips. “As long as you and those 7 other dorks are there I’ll be the happiest I can be.” 

“I know. I know.” 

“Then why are you still pouting?” 

“Because I want more kisses.” 

“It’s my birthday, shouldn’t I be the one getting what I want?” 

“That’s for later tonight, baby,” Chan clutches around the back of Woojin’s neck, his boyfriend responds by using the hand that was still on the other’s waist to bring them closer together so they can re-join their lips lovingly. 

/ ~ / 

Chan sighs as he attempts to place the banner – the last party decoration- up inside the lounge room of his apartment, “OI, Hyunjin, I need your long legs.” 

“…”

“HYUNJIN GET YOUR ASS OVER HERE. WOOJIN WILL BE HOME ANY MINUTE.” Chan raises an eyebrow as he sees Jeongin’s door slam open and a flustered looking Hyunjin exit. “What were you doing in there?” Chan asks through a wide smirk. 

“Um… nothing.” Yet Chan new that Hyunjin was lying, his eyes looking around the room – never meeting his hyung’s and there is pink hue that adorns his cheeks. 

“Whatever you say, just help me hang up this banner.” Hyunjin nods in response, walking over to grab the banner from Chan’s hands. “By the way jinnie, your buttons are uneven,” he continues, winking as he walks in the kitchen to finish the final bits of food preparation for tonight. 

/ ~ / 

“Okay, everyone! Changbin just texted that they’re in the elevator- PLACES,” Chan yells at the boys all gathered in the lounge room of his apartment, onlooking the front door while they wait for the arrival of their two friends. 

Keys jangle in the look of the front door and everyone jumps around in anticipation, “HAPPY BIRTHDAY” they all cheer together as Woojin and Changbin walk through the door. 

Jeongin runs up to Woojin first, giving his hyung a big hug. Woojin wraps his arms tightly around Jeongin, swinging around in a circle as the two giggle happily. 

“Now, I have just spent my whole birthday at work, it is 7pm and I just want fooddddd. Oh! And please tell me that I have some presents for my birthday.” Woojin says, his arms still around his little cousin. 

“Food or presents first?” Seungmin asks. 

Woojin ponders for a second, “Hmmmm presents of course,” before cracking into a huge smile. 

Felix runs to the pile of presents behind them, that Woojin couldn’t previously see, and picks up a present wrapped in simple brown paper, “well then, me first!” 

Everyone moves to the lounge room, sitting together as they watch Woojin begin to open Felix’s present. Felix is giddy in anticipation, sitting next to his hyung with his head upon his shoulder while he waits to see what Woojin thinks of the present. “AWWW Lix I love it so much,” Woojin exclaims, lifting up the present to show the others: a chubby stuffed brown bear with one winking almond eye and a shirt that reads ‘Bear with me… I’ll think of a pun soon’. 

“Well, you are our big bear hyung.”

“Bloody hell Felix, I love you so much.” 

“Love you too Woojinnie.” 

“Me NEXT,” Jeongin interrupts, handing Woojin another box of the same wrapping. 

“OOOH I love clothessss, this is such a nice shirt.” 

Minho slings his arm around Chan’s shoulder, “DAMN WOOJIN you gonna look like one sexy Chanfucker.” 

“huh?” everyone else responds, however they all realise at the same time – as seen by the mix of ‘ooooh’s, ‘ahhhh’s and laughter that fill the room.

With his arm still slung around Woojin, Minho kisses his eldest hyung on the cheek, “Sung and I bought you a present together.” Jisung hands Woojin a small, malleable wrapped square. Woojin opens it, remaining silent as he meets the eyes of the two mischievously smirking boys before him. “Um… thanks…” he says, holding up a pair of red underwear with a chicken drumstick on the crotch. 

“Turn it around, hun,” Miho continues, laughing when Woojin blushingly turns the underwear around, displaying the ‘eat me’ printed along the back. The boys all giggle once again, Jisung leaving the room during the middle of it. He returns a moment later, to which the laughter dies down, with a large, wrapped object in his arms. 

“We got you that as a joke Woojinnie hyung – please do wear them at least once though – but, we also bought you this.” 

Woojin takes the present and opens it, his heart filling with love at the picture before him; a framed A3 version of the group photo they had taken at Felix’s recital. “AWWW thanks you two, I love it. It’s going to replace our old group right there-” he points above the couch “- after all, that one has two parents and only six kids - we’ve gained another since then. 

Changbin moves to sit next to Woojin, squeezing between his hyung and Felix, “me next, Jinnie hyung.” Woojin happily accepts the box given to him, squealing in delight when he sees a bottle of perfume. 

“THANKS BINNIE.” Next Woojin is given a present by Hyunjin and Seungmin; the two having bought him a ‘best Dad’ mug and apron and a pair of pants to accompany the shirt Jeongin had bought him. 

Lastly is Chan, who simply says, “you’ll get my present later” to his anticipating boyfriend. 

/ ~ / 

“I AM FULL. Thanks for the great meal, Channie baby.” Woojin says, kissing his boyfriend who is currently sitting on his lap on the floor of the lounge room. 

“Your welcome, baby. I do have an activity for us though it’s – dun, dun – truth or dareeeee. And since you’re the birthday boy, you can go first, ask anyone anything. 

“Hmmm Chan, truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to sit on my lap for the whole game.” 

“That is SO easy and SO cheesy, but hey, what can I say? It is my favourite place to sit.” Woojin laughs, wrapping his arms around Chan and laying his head on his shoulder. 

“Hyunjin, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“What were you and Seungmin doing in Jeongin's room earlier?”

“We were…. Colouring. Yep, colouring.” 

“Uh huh. Some very heart-racing colouring I saw.” 

“Uh yeah, always stressful work colouring, I’m not very good at keeping it in the lines.” 

“You do know Hyunjin, that if you’re lying that you have to take a forfeit dare and they are THE WORST.” 

“Just tell him, Hyunjinnie,” Jeongin pipes up. 

“Yeah Hyunjin, tell me.” 

“We were cuddling.” 

“I KNEW IT,” Changbin stands up suddenly, pointing at Jisung, “you owe me twenty thousand won, bi-atch.” 

“UGHHHHHHHH,” Jisung complains as he pulls a note from his wallet for Changbin.

“So are you three… dating?” Felix asks. 

Hyunjin reaches out for Jeongin, pulling the youngest into his lap, “we don’t know.”

“Yeah, labels can suck my ass. I don’t care what society says about always trying to put people in a tiny box of defined rules; these two make me happy and I want to express that love to both of them.” Seungmin adds, wrapping his arms around Hyunjin and Jeongin. 

Chan eyes them narrowly, “you two better take care of my angel.” 

“We will,” Seungmin and Hyunjin reply simultaneously – both drawing a snuggling Jeongin closer. 

“Oh, it’s my turn to choose, isn’t it?” Hyunjin remembers, “Minho; truth or dare?” 

“Dare.” 

“I dare you to kiss the person in this circle who you find most attractive, other than Jisungie of course.”

“I was gonna call you a dick Hyunjin, but then you added that last part so I’ll forgive you. But, Lee Minho, if I see any tongue I’m gonna whoop your ass later.” 

“Yes, honey.” Minho looks around the circle of his closest friends, biting his lip as he thinks of who to choose. His eyes meet a certain person across the circle and he knows that he’s made his decision. He crawls across the circle on his hands and knees, he wraps his hand around the back of their neck to draw them closer and leaves a quick kiss on their lips. There was no passion in the kiss, just love, making both the giver and recipient smile. Minho pulls away, brushing Changbin’s black bangs away from his beaming, crescent-shaped eyes. “Now, it’s my turn to pick,” he continues, returning to his place beside Jisung in the circle, “Felix, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“If you could date one celebrity, who would it be?” 

“That Ok Taec Yeon guy is SEXY AS FUCK. He’s so tall and muscly, oh my Woojin, he’s just beautiful.” 

“Oh my Woojin?” Woojin asks in confusion, raising his eyebrow at Felix. 

Seungmin explains the term to his hyung, everyone except Changbin laughs as they watch Woojin’s confusion grow. Felix notices Changbin’s forlorn look, brushing his own head against his hyung’s. Changbin looks at Felix, offering a small smile, yet Felix knows that he is upset – he instantly regrets what he had said just before. He knows how Changbin feels about his height. “I’m sorry Binnie--,” he whispers, “—you’re an amazing person and that means more to me than any physical feature. You’re perfect just the way you are. Perfect for me, okay?” Changbin nods, yet Felix still links their hands together. They had been taking things slowly the past few weeks; their feelings for each other slowly blooming everyday like a beautiful flower. They still haven’t shared their first kiss, both just happy in the first stages of love: the giddiness, the fleeting moments of irregularly beating hearts, every and all excuses to touch each other, even in just the smallest ways, and of course the constant feeling of content whenever the other was there. Both are happy with each other – happy now as they stare into each other’s eyes, forgetting the ruckus of a room full of laughter. 

“Okay then, Felix.” Both of their eyes are drawn back to the others in the circle, “your turn to pick someone,” Hyunjin comments. 

“Chan, truth or dare?” 

“Truth.” 

“How did you and Woojin meet?” 

“Well, I came to Korea when I was in year 12, so basically I completed my schooling here. I signed up for an exchange program and long story short I ended up in Woojin’s apartment with his family. We grew really close and I eventually feel in love with this beautiful man. After senior year however, I did have to return to Australia for University because I promised my parents. When I got back I told them about the life I had created over here, with Woojin and these guys and so my parents let me transfer my credits after my first year and finish my degree of teaching in Korea. When I came back we bought this apartment together and well… the rest is lovely history. Surprisingly, I was attracted to this dork from the first time I saw him.”

“Well, I confessed first.” Woojin teased. 

“I asked you out first.” 

“Well, I said I love you first.” 

“Well, I proposed first.” 

“What?” 

Woojin watches as Chan lifts himself from his lap, gets down one knee before the sitting boy and pulls out a little blue box. Chan opens the box, revealing two simple silver bands with a flower engraved into each of them. (A/N: refer to skz twitter – 30th Aug). 

“I promise from this day forward that you will never walk alone; my heart will be your shelter, and my arms your home. Kim Woojin, will you marry me?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This was honestly just a really short and shit update. However, I had to put something out as I won’t be able to post for a couple months due to exams. So it’s kinda like my apology chapter for not being able to post for a while, yet I might actually owe you guys another apology now as I’m leaving you on a bit off cliff hanger. 
> 
> This is basically me trying to set up the ending as there will probably only be another 2-4 chapters of Freckled Pirouette released before it comes to an end.  
> Thanks for sticking by me guys, and see you soon! To the people who read this, and especially those of you that leave comments and kudos, you mean so so so much to me. <3<3<3
> 
> P.S. The ending will be very Changlix focused, I promise, this whole Woochan engagement helps move the plot along - it will all be explained in the next chapters.


	11. (11) NXT 2 U

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay! So! I’m finally back! To all the people reading this I would like to first thank you for returning to this story after over two months of no updates! :)))) Secondly… I’m ngl, when I first came up with this concept I literally had two chapters planned and everything after that has been me completely winging it. Although that seemed okay at the time, I am now left being too much of a perfectionist to leave a story unfinished, but also having no idea how to end it. And so, welcome to the last few chapters of Freckled Pirouette – where it turns low-key into a mafia AU and a high-key shitty AU. Please enjoy, but honestly if the feedback for the ending is crap I might just delete these chapters and keep rewriting it until I like it jdjdjdjd.
> 
> Also reminder: ** indicates English speech
> 
> P.S. after a long debate with myself I finally decided to add smut… it’s pretty cringey now that I read it back, but ehhhhh

~ Just over a month later ~

“Felix, hey I bought stuff for dinner – I’m going to make us--“ Changbin stops talking as he enters the kitchen of Chan and Woojin’s apartment and sees a note attached to the fridge. He pulls the folded piece of paper, which has his name written on it in fast-paced English handwriting, from under the magnet. Confusion clouds his mind as he opens the note and begins reading:

_Binnie. I am so so so sorry. More sorry than you will ever know._

Changbin’s heart drops as he quickly scans the rest of the words, his stomach tightening uncomfortably as he feels inevitable dread weigh him down with each word as he continues.

_I had to leave. They were threatening you, they were threatening the others. I’m so sorry._

He knows exactly who ‘they’ is.

_I know that you will hate me for leaving like this, but I didn’t have the guts to tell you any other way. I couldn’t look into your eyes and tell you that I am going back to Australia, never to return. The past year has been the best of my life because of you Changbin. Because of the others. And so I’m just a coward who couldn’t tell you in person. If I had had to see your heart break, or watch you try and demise a plan to get me to stay, it just would have made things even harder than they already are._

_Although I’m leaving I want you to know that you helped me through the darkest time of my life; you helped me when no one else would. Seeing myself in your eyes when you looked at me with that beautiful smile of yours – I saw as I began to change, to become happier because of you. I will forever be thankful that you, the slightly awkward and embarrassed boy that I quickly began to treasure, had the guts to seek me out and buy me chicken. That alone was one of the nicest things anyone had ever done for me._

_You’re a light Changbin to everyone you meet. You may seem to have this tough exterior, but you really are person who will do anything for anyone._

_You should know that no one has ever made me feel as happy, as content and as safe as I felt in your arms last night. I will never forget the feeling of being within them and knowing that you love me. I will forever be, not only indebted to you Changbin for when you saved my life, but also in love with you._

_Thank you, Changbin for everything._

_Yours,_

_Yongbokkie._

Changbin reaches the end and his eyes fill over with tears. He doesn’t know whether to hold the note to his heart in sadness or rip it into a million pieces in rage. Somewhere on a fine line between the two emotions, he falls to the floor of the kitchen. His legs hitting the cold floor, he folds into himself and cries into his own arms, his chest racking with pained sobs.

/ ~ /

~ One week earlier ~

“Woojin, I need the--”

Woojin hands Chan his laptop.

Chan runs his hands through his barely-blow-dried blonde hair, “Ugh, I didn’t even have a chance to--”

This time Woojin hands Chan his usual morning coffee.

“Babe, you’re amazing. Marry me?”

Woojin laughs, “HEY, I already asked that. It’s next week silly.” He leans down and gives Chan’s pouting lips a loving peck, pulling away when Chan starts to say something else. However, Woojin cuts him off before he can even begin, “and yes, I called the venue to double check. Yes, I double checked our suits.”

“You’re perfect, you know that?” Woojin just smiles at Chan and gives him another kiss, this time also wrapping him in a loving hug as the two stand in the doorway of their apartment. Chan starts intensifying the kiss, licking Woojin’s lips hungrily – demanding entrance. Woojin pulls away again, “honey, you’re gonna be late.”

“UGHHHHH – a quickie?”

“You just got ready, you’ll get all dirty again. Plus, you’re gonna be late if you don’t leave the house now.” Chan nods with his head hanging low as he slowly opens the door to leave. With one more exaggerated head turn he sighs dramatically and turns back to Woojin, who just laughs at his insufferable fiancé. He watches Chan leave and then walks back into the kitchen to prepare himself breakfast. He’s not even a minute into buttering his toast when there is a knock at his door, he opens it and sees a sad looking Changbin.

“AWWW Binnie bun, what’s the matter?” Changbin drags himself into the apartment and falls onto Woojin’s couch with a hand on his forehead like a drama protagonist, “Lix got a job and he just went for his first shift. Now I’m gonna see him less cause we’ll both be workinnnnngggggg.”

“Stop whining.” Woojin says, “you want some breakfast?”

Changbin pokes his head cutely over the top of the couch and peers into the kitchen, “what are you making?”

“Eggs on toast.”

“Oooh yes, please.”

The door behind Changbin opens and a yawning Jeongin walks out. With his shoulder’s hung low he then begins to stretch his limbs as he moves towards Changbin. “I’d love some too hyung. With my toast cut into little soldiers.”

“Anything for you.” Woojin laughs.

Changbin opens his arms and Jeongin slides comfortably into them, sitting next to Changbin as his hyung wraps them tight around him. Changbin leans his head on Jeongin’s shoulder while he continues to talk to Woojin, “I’m just sad Woojinnie hyung.”

“You’re growing up. Eventually you’ll both work full time jobs and then that’ll be worse.”

“Oooh is this about Felix’s new job? He looked so cute in the picture he sent me of the waiter uniform.”

“He does look cute. WAIT. Woojin, what if someone hits on him for looking so fucking beautiful?”

“Then he will deal with it.”

“But…” Changbin pouts into Jeongin’s neck, “he’s mine” he finishes softly.

“Oh, so he’s yours now? You guys have moved pretty quickly this past month.”

“Yeah, after the recital I told him we’d take it slow and I don’t know… I’ve just become really attached to him. I don’t know if we’re dating, but --“

Jeongin interrupts him, “if what you guys have ‘isn’t dating’, then I don’t what is.” He laughs, “you guys sleep in the same bed every night, are legit always touching each other and are completely infatuated with each other. Yeah, if that ain’t dating then what Chenle and I have is like… acquaintanceship.

“I saw the pic you and Chenle posted the other day after you announced you were dating, I busted the fattest uwu”, Changbin says.

Woojin is the next to ask a question, “You and Chenle are very cute Innie.” He then turns his head to Changbin, “But, how have things been? We obviously don’t see what happens when you guys are alone.”

“I haven’t even properly kissed him yet, but at the same time I don’t mind. Like the month has just been us hugging, supporting each other, and getting to know each other more. It’s been really nice. Of course I’m wanting to kiss him, but at the same time I’m just happy spending time with him. He fills this space in my heart, like there has always been room for eight there – one spot for each of you losers and then one right in the middle that has been reserved for him all these years.”

“So you love him.”

“I-I guess I do.”

~ Meanwhile, that same day ~

Felix closes the apartment door behind him, smiling widely after receiving more cheek kisses from Changbin while he kept repeating “you look so cute, you look so cute.”

Walking into the elevator, and then out the front door of their complex, he emerges into the new day. The midday sun warms his mostly-black attire that he recently received for his new job as a waiter at one of Seoul’s most prestigious restaurants. He turns down an alley, a short cut he takes to get to said restaurant, and sees a limo sitting in the middle of it. Confused, he keeps walking, however he can feel two presences emerge behind him, their shadows growing on the pavement next to him as they continue to approach. Felix runs, trying to get past the limo and away from the men – however another appears from inside the car and grabs him. He kicks and tries to scream, but his face is covered by a bag and his mouth a rough hand, so he can only push out muffled sounds as he is pulled into the limo.

Being a lot bigger than Felix, the masked man holds him in a firm grip and he can hear two other men, most likely the ones that were behind him moments earlier, join them in the limo on the seats opposite. He hears the doors lock and then the grip on his arm is loosened. He cowers in the corner closest to him, trying to get as far away as possible from all three men.

“Hello Felix.”

_I know that voice. Surely – it can’t be?_

Thoughts are accelerating inside Felix’s head. He begs them to slow so that he can breathe, but they won't. His breath begisn to come in gasps and he feels like he will black out at any second. His heart is hammering inside his chest like it belongs to a rabbit running for its skin. The room spins as he feels another man reach forward and place their hands on the skin of his forearm to hold him still. As soon as the man’s rough fingertips hit his skin he feels the panic within him explode like a cluster of spark plugs in his abdomen. He feels the tension grow with each sequential alternating pattern of the man moving his hands up to Felix’s face and his own sharp intake of shallow breath.

The primal urge to flee rips through his gut, at knowing who he is going to see when the man before him finally manages to take off the bag. However, the man is cut off by that familiar voice that sent his skin crawling, “No, leave that on…Now, Felix. Why have you been trying so very hard to avoid me? Don’t you miss your Father?” Felix tenses considerably more from underneath the bag.

The voice gives him a few moments, with what previously sounded like a smirk in his voice quickly disappeared as his bellow of “ANSWER ME” ripped through the air of the limo.

“No, I haven’t.” Felix replies, trying to keep his voice steady so that he doesn’t seem phased, yet he feels like all his bones are quaking within him from fear.

“I thought you’d say that. You see – I’ve been in China the last year and a bit working on some business so I haven’t been able to come get you. I’ve had my goons keep an eye on you every once in a while though. I knew you’d follow that fag profession of yours and so it wasn’t that hard to find you amongst the scholarships of the most prestigious dance school. However, when you got hurt and then moved in with that guy, well, these idiots lost you. And then they were telling me how seemingly attached you were becoming and I thought, ‘I’m in China, might as well let you get attached.’ Cause then you know, the pull away is all the more sweet for me, and all the more painful for you.”

The reality sets in for Felix, “So, you’re going to take me back to Australia?”

“Well, I have to. I need my family line to carry the name of our company and you sadly, are the only offspring that I have.”

“Why not train up someone else in your ranks? Father, I don’t want to leave?” His voice sounds as if it being pulled tight, sobs threatening to course through his entire body.

“After some recent… choices, all my closest commanders have left and so I need someone to work with me, preferably someone from the family. And so, yes, we’ll be going back to Australia as soon as I’ve finished up the last of business here in Korea.”

Felix knows there is no way he can get out of this and so goes for a different angle instead, “please father, I’m begging you, please let me stay with my friends until you leave. I promise that if you guys come for me that I’ll leave with no fighting, but I just would really like to finish up my goodbyes.” By the last sentence his voice is strained with his begging plea.

“Fine. But I’ll be there in the morning in five days to pick you up from your apartment. If you’re late or don’t show up, well then I might just have to go get my guys to ‘inspect’ your friend’s apartment.”

Felix nods, surprised that any type of agreement had been met. Some sort of signal must have been given to the man next to him as the bag is pulled over his head. It doesn’t take his eyes long to adjust due to the darkness inside of the car and so they begin to focus on the face across from him. The very face of his own father, the man that tortured both his waking life and his dreams. He is Felix’s biggest fear – the source of all his nightmares and anxieties. His father smirks and Felix feels his stomach churn at its vileness; the man’s ages skin around his lips lifting in one corner as he tilts his head forward and narrows his eyes at his son.

The door opens and he is pushed roughly out of the car, falling onto his hands and knees with a wince.

Every few steps that Felix took he looked back just to make sure that his Father was really keeping up with his end of the bargain. He eventually made his way to work, checking in ten minutes late to his first shift – what a great start. He tried to carry on normally to cloud his tardiness, however after nearly dropping several plates from being completely out of it, he was sent home with no indication of a shift in the future.

He then returned back to their apartment late when everyone else is in bed. Not saying a word to anyone about what had happened, he instead changes into his pyjamas and just climbs into the waiting arms of Changbin who stirs awake in their bed as Felix enters the bedroom.

“Hey Yongbokkie, how was your shift?” Felix’s heart drags as he listens to the sleep-heavy voice of the boy he had come treasure more than anything. Even though Changbin has to wake up early tomorrow for an exam, he still asks Felix how his day was and actually listens.

“I-I… um… I didn’t like it. The manager was really mean, so I don’t think I’ll be going back.” His heart hurts that he has to lie to Changbin, but he knows that the number of lies will just increase over the next few days.

“That’s okay, baby. We’ll find you another job.”

_There’s no point. I won’t be here long enough._

~ 3 days later ~

Changbin’s worry grows as he continues to watch Felix. The past few days he has been off… On edge. Like he is always looking over his shoulder. Like his mind is always somewhere else. When sitting with the others Changbin watches as they begin to laugh and Felix’s blank face doesn’t register the humour itself, but rather just that there is laughter and so he joins in with a forced chuckle that quickly subsides again.

He has tried to talk to Felix, but has been brushed off as ‘I’m just tried’ or ‘I’m just stressed’ and so Changbin had left it at that – trying to believe him.

~ The next day – Wedding Day! ~

“Okay, so even the celebrant will be here soon.” Minho says, fussing over all the final details for the two grooms while they get ready, in his own dishevelled half buttoned shirt.

Jeongin becomes confused, yelling from where he is getting ready in the bathroom, “what’s a celebrant?”

“Well, since Woojin and Chan are both men, it isn’t technically legal for them to be married, so they’re doing it the bootleg way.” Seungmin laughs, “they’ll be having a ceremony with a celebrant that is all the same as regular wedding, except for the legally binding part of husband / wife. But, one of them will be changing their names – the haven’t told us which yet – and they will be declaring each other their next of kin. So it’s basically a way to be married without the word marriage stamped on it.”

“OOOOOHHHHH, thanks.” The youngest says, now moving on to styling his hair.

Minho looks up, “okay, now I’ve got to go pick up Woojin from his apartment and take him so he can meet with the celebrant. You guys better be leaving out this door with Chan in an hour.”

A mix of silent nods and murmurs are given to him and so he starts to walk out the door. “Oi! Min, wait.” Jisung runs up to his boyfriend and starts to button his shirt properly for him. The ease drips from Minho as his boyfriend does each button, finishing the last with a peck on his lips before shuffling him out of the door.

/ ~ /

Not quite a routine wedding, all nine boys stand in a beautiful park underneath a flowered arch. Cherry blossoms cover the arch, contrasting beautifully with the black suit pants and blush-pink shirts of all seven best man. Woojin and Chan couldn’t possible choose only a couple of them and so they chose all of them to stand with them – three on one side of the arch and four on the other.

The celebrant begins the music and Chan walks down the small flower-lined aisle towards the love of his life. With his bright smile it makes everyone, even Felix, have all their worries wash away. His blush-pink suit jacket and black undershirt make him look so handsome amongst the scenery that he is emerging from. Once Chan is standing next to Woojin, his husband-to-be, in his contrarily black suit jacket and pale pink shirt, the two link hands and the celebrant begins.

“Welcome friends, or should I say, family of these two grooms. We gather here today to celebrate the wedding of Kim Woojin and Bang Christopher. You have come here to share in this formal commitment they make to one another, to offer your love and support to this union, and to allow Woojin and Christopher to start their committed life together surrounded by the people dearest and most important to them. Now, your proclamation today will be a lifelong promise to love, respect, trust and honour each other through the good, the bad and the unexpected. This union represents your commitment to support one another as individual beings, but share your joys, sorrows, and dreams as one. A strong bond works in unison not only to nurture the best parts of your personalities, but to understand each other’s differences and flaws. You are committing to learn how to grow alongside one another while remembering to keep an open mind throughout your journey. Today, you gain an equal partner that will be your confidant, your defender and your motivator through all of your aspirations and goals. You will celebrate each accomplishment, provide peace through every setback and most importantly, give love in life’s both big and little moments. You are creating a new home where love, trust and loyalty are the foundation. No matter what the future throws your way, rely on those foundations and you shall see your bond grow stronger and your souls grow wiser. This commitment is not easy, but from what I’ve seen in the two of you, I know your relationship will be an example to follow. You show care and compassion, you trust one another and most importantly, you are each other’s best friend.”

The celebrant pauses and the boys watch as Woojin and Chan stare at each other with love so powerful that the others swear they can see it radiate around them like a fume. Those two absorb the words as they stare into each other’s souls and they know that they’re making the right choice.

“Do you, Woojin, take this man to be your committed partner?”

“I do.” There is no pause before he said it, like he’d been waiting to say those words for years.

“Do you, Christopher, take this man to be your committed partner?”

Taking a little bit longer than his partner, Chan reaches up and places a loving kiss to Woojin’s lips before answering, “I do.”

“HEY! You can’t do that until the guy says,” Hyunjin squeaks. Everyone laughs as the celebrant continues.

“Please now read the vows you have written for each other.”

Woojin pulls out a slip of paper from within his jacket and begins, “I, Woojin, take you Christopher to be partner, my love and my constant friend. I will work to create a bond of honesty, respect, and trust; one that withstands the tides of time and change, and grows along with us. I vow to honour and respect you for all that you are and will become, taking pride in who we are, both separately and together. I promise to challenge you and to accept challenges from you.” Woojin takes a sharp intake of breath, his voice becoming shaky. “Our home will be a sanctuary and a respite for us and for those whom we cherish. Above all, I will give you my love freely and unconditionally. I pledge this to you from the bottom of my heart, for all the days of our lives.” By the end both men are crying tears that falls down into the creases of their smiles; smiles that seem like they will never disappear.

Chan begins his, however he doesn’t pull out a piece of paper, he simply recites it through his happy tears: “I, Christopher, take you Woojin to be partner, my love and my constant friend. Since the day I met you, when I arrived at your door as the shy Australian exchange student and looked into your beautiful caring eyes, I knew that I was going to love you forever. As we became closer from those secret nights we spent together, I learnt more about the person that you are. You’re caring, loving, determined, talented, handsome and of course the perfect man for me. Your beauty, heart, and mind inspire me to the best person that I can be. You see Woojinnie, to me, your love is like water. It is shapeless and it is formless, but it is also peaceful _,_ _yet so, so strong. You cannot live without water – and I cannot live without you. You, my darling, are my heart. I promise to support you, through thick and thin. I cannot wait to walk back down that aisle so that I can start the rest of my life with you by my side._ I promise to love you for eternity _, respecting you, honouring you, being faithful to you, and sharing my life with you. This is my solemn vow.”_

“And now the rings. Your rings represent this promise to one another. The never-ending circle is a symbol of an infinite, unbreakable love.” The two rings which the boys hadn’t taken off since the proposal had however been taken that morning so that they could be re-given at this very point. Changbin emerges with the box and hands it to the celebrant, he then walks back to his place on the side of the arch, but not before placing a loving hand on Chan’s shoulder. With their rings placed on their ring fingers, the two interlink their hands again. However, Woojin pulls away to use him to thumb to wipe away the tears of his still-crying partner.

“Having pledged your love and promise to one another today in front of all of your friends and family and by the power vested in me, I now pronounce you committed partners. You may kiss each other. Congratulations! It is my honour to introduce to you Mister Bang Christopher and Mister Bang Woojin.”

All the boys squeal in delight at the beautiful ceremony, the fact that Chan and Woojin are now kissing passionately under an arch of cherry blossoms and the adorable name change.

/ ~ /

“AWWWW you guys decorated the café for us.” Chan practically sings and he walks into Minho’s cat café, him and Woojin still seemingly attached at the waist as they walk in with their arms around each other.

The pastel café is beautifully draped with white lace, has a white silk tablecloth on a table in the middle of the room and is decorated with cherry blossoms all around the place.

“YOU EVEN DRESSED UP THE CATS” Woojin screams as he sees Yongbok, Soonie, Doongie and Dori in all different outfits ranging from dresses, veils, bow tie collars and little suits.

“There’s food out the back too, I’ll go grab it.” Felix offers. The wedding had offered him a small distraction, but he is now once again thinking that this the last time that he will ever be with all nine of these boys again. Not even really thinking of how heavy it would be, he goes to grab the plate with the wedding cake from the fridge. He pulls it out quickly and spins around to walk back out of the kitchen, the initial momentum allowing him to hold the plate. However, he is just about to fall to the ground with it when Changbin is there, he puts a supportive hand around Felix’s waist and one hand under the plate.

“LIX! This is a heavy-ass wedding cake; you should have just asked for some help.” Changbin takes the plate from an apologetic Felix and places it on the bench, his hand on Felix’s waist not leaving. Changbin looks at Felix and smiles, the younger not returning it – he just couldn’t with the fear of tomorrow and the other feeling that was starting to consume his mind. Felix grabs the collar of Changbin’s shirt and pulls him slowly closer. At first the older is hesitant, Felix’s consent more important than anything to him, he doesn’t want him to break down crying again. However, this time Changbin notices that there isn’t sadness while their faces come closer together, but rather a burning hunger that singes through his eyes. They both close their eyes as their breaths start to intermingle, their noses nearly touching, their lips nearly finally gracing each other’s – when the door to the kitchen opens and the two tumble away from each other awkwardly.

The look and see Minho eyeing them with a raised eyebrow as he goes into the fridge to grab the other plates, “I wondered what was taking you guys so long. Oh! By the way, Woojin just announced that he has a week honeymoon to China booked for the both of them and since Jeongin is going to Busan next week for his study tour, they need someone to house sit. I was gonna volunteer with Sung, but I feel like you guys might want it now,” he chuckles as he heads back out of the kitchen.

Changbin looks at the other sheepishly, whereas Felix becomes pissed. _If my father is going to rip everything I have from me then tonight, then I am going to give everything to Changbin._

Felix licks his lips and whispers in Changbin’s ear, “we are definitely house sitting.” Changbin’s mind starts to freak out, _does that mean he wants to continue whatever that was?!?!?_ The little Changbin in his head starts doing joyous cartwheels while squealing like a little love struck girl. _Tonight can be the night that I tell him that I love him._

The two help each other to carry the cake out to the table, everyone eyeing off the huge structure with hunger. Woojin’s eyes widen considerably more than anyone else’s at the sight of the little personalised cake topper: Chan and Woojin standing side by side. “MMMMMM it looks so good. AND LITTLE ME IS HOLDING A LITTLE BUCKET OF CHICKEN. THIS IS THE BEST DAY EVERY.

“Wait, so you guys are going to China? When did you organise this Woojin hyung?” Changbin asks.

“Ummm a couple of weeks ago actually, I thought fuck it – let’s go on a holiday for a week.”

“Awww I hope you guys have a great time.” Felix tries to say through the growing commotion of the others goggling at the constant supply of delicious plates of that food that Minho is bringing out from the kitchen.

Chan speaks up from where his head is resting on Woojin’s shoulder, “I’m so excited, but the only Chinese I know is ‘Ni hao’.” This elicits a laugh from the Changbin, Felix and Woojin – the only people listening.

However, Jisung seems to catch onto that last part. “*Knee how?* The fuck you mean *knee how*? What about my elbow?”

Next is Seungmin who decided to intervene after hearing half of a conversation, “Isn’t it supposed to be *how’s your knee?* Chan, I thought you spoke English.”

“I was speaking Chinese, idiots.”

“I THOUGHT HE SPOKE AUSTRALIAN.” Jeongin adds and everyone cracks up laughing around the table.

Felix looks around at the table of these boys who had become his family. They’d accepted him into their already happy family with ease even though he was a stranger. He was going to miss them with all of his heart. Felix accidentally lets a tear slip, but quickly pats it away, however it doesn’t go unnoticed by Chan, who turns back to the others with a terrible feeling in his stomach.

/ ~ /

Felix grabs the key Woojin had given him and opens the door to their second-home apartment. Changbin shuffles in after him and he closes the door behind the older.

“I’m going to go have a shower,” Felix says quickly as he darts into the bathroom. Changbin nods to himself and heads to Woojin and Chan’s room where they had been given permission to sleep. Laying on their hyung’s bed, Changbin can hear the showers incessant thrumming noise and, knowing Felix, he knows that he will be in there for a while, so Changbin pulls a recent book he was reading on his phone while he waits. However, he soon becomes uncomfortable in his clothes and so takes out the clothes he had grabbed when they’d been at their own apartment earlier. He gets dressed out of his suit and into some simple grey tracksuit pants and a black shirt.

Eventually the shower is turned off, Changbin not noticing while he is folding up his suit, until the door of their room opens. Turning his head from where he was standing on the opposite side of the room, he sees Felix before him in nothing but a towel. Never having seen this much of the other, Changbin’s jaw drops and his eyes practically goggle the boy in pure shock of just how beautiful he is. Of course Changbin thought he’d be beautiful, but not this ethereal. The towel hangs lopsided on his delicate waist, exposing a slight v on the more exposed side. He has definition to his stomach from countless of years of dancing, water droplets still remaining on the ripples of his muscle that glisten on his honey-tan skin. Changbin yearns to run his hands up and down Felix, to grab him and kiss him everywhere – to taste the water that covers his skin.

Felix would usually be uncomfortable with this, but after his Dad he’d realised that this would be his last time to be with Changbin and so he wanted to give him everything. “I wish I’d kissed you earlier. I wish that Minho hadn’t come.” Changbin watches as the burning desire in his Felix’s returns, oh how he wishes they had kissed then too. “I should have done this a long time ago,” he continues.

Felix walks up to Changbin slowly. With each step both of their heart beats increase in pace. When Felix is standing directly before Changbin, he leans down into his hyung and presses their lips together. Changbin doesn’t move for a few seconds and the other notices, “I-I’m sorry Binnie, I didn’t mean to make you uncomfortable, I just thought that you’d--”. Changbin silences Felix by returning their slips to each other. Their lips mould against each other’s, firm and heavy as the two pant through their nose. Felix pulls Changbin’s shirt, desperate to get them even closer to each other. Changbin responds by placing his hand on Felix’s towel-covered hips as he uses the other’s opened mouth breath as an opportunity to run his tongue over his bottom lip. Changbin had thought about this moment many times, what it would be like to leave Felix breathless by just kissing him – this was better than what he could have ever imagined. Felix moans at the desperate tongue of his hyung and that is enough to make Changbin pick him up by his waist. The younger wraps his legs around Changbin’s as they continue to kiss each other, Changbin having to stretch upwards and Felix lean down, so that their tongues can continue to wrap around each other’s. Changbin squeezes Felix’s hips tight like a massage that is in synch with the movement of his lips.

It being one of the hardest things he has ever had to do, Changbin pulls away from Felix’s lips, the younger trailing him for more as he does so. “Yongbokkie, you know consent is very important to me, especially with you. I want to know that you really want to do this…”

“I want to do everything with you.” Felix replies, breathless and eyes starry.

“Everything?” Changbin asks, practically choking on his own words.

“Take me Changbin. Take my virginity.”

“You’re so, so, so beautiful,” Changbin says as he kisses Felix’s stomach, that is eye level with him, and carries Felix to the bed. He places him on his back slowly, making sure the towel is still covering him (he knows that Felix will take it off when he is ready), and proceeds to reconnect their lips.

Felix whines into the kiss and Changbin feels his providing side be triggered, so he pulls away again, “what is it, baby?”

“Take off your clothes.” Each word from the younger’s mouth is laced with sex – the thought of it, the desire for it. Changbin does as he is told, ripping off his shirt and shorts before moving the position of his body so that he can kiss Felix’s waist. Everything’s hot, their breaths, their skin against each other’s, the moans that leave Felix’s mouth as Changbin leaves suckling kisses from the top of the towel, to his muscular stomach. Changbin licks along the creases of each protruding muscle, nipping little bites over them as well – Felix moans even louder as he grabs Changbin’s head and begins to pull at his hair. It is slightly painful, but it also shows Changbin that what he is doing is working, so he continues to his nipple. He bites the supple skin, then runs his tongue over it before leaving kisses all around. The marks all over him would stay for a while, but Changbin didn’t care – Felix is his.

Before moving to his next nipple, Changbin lifts his head, his own words breathless and slurred from his already-aching jaw, “I need stuff if we’re gonna continue.”

Felix whines and pleads and Changbin starts to get off him, “don’t go, I’ll be okay without it, just please don’t leave me.”

He kisses the other boy’s pouting lips and laughs as Felix attempts to deepen it again, “Hey, Felix, if it’s your first time it’s already going to be uncomfortable, I don’t want to make it worse – trust me.”

 _Lube, lube, lube. Condoms, condoms, condoms._ He thinks to himself, _where would they keep them?_ He decides to look in the bedside cupboard and whola! A bottle of lube and a pack of condoms. _I’ll just have to make sure to replace them so they don’t know._

Putting the items on top of the bed side table for when they need them, he goes back to his still-whining boyfriend.

“I want to take off my towel, but I’m nervous…”

“We can always stop if you want, okay. If you feel uncomfortable with anything, let me know.”

“I’m just nervous cause I’ve never done this in front of someone.”

Changbin leaves peppered kisses over Felix’s face, “I know. You just take your time, okay.”

“I want to do it – I trust you Binnie”

“Would you like me to do it?” Felix nods as a pink hue moves from his chest to his cheeks. Avoiding Changbin’s eyes, he waits until he feels the older’s delicate hands around the top of the towel.

“Baby, hey. Look at me.” Changbin slowly opens the towel and moves back a little to look at Felix completely naked laying on the bed. “You are the most beautiful thing I have ever seen,” he whispers. This gives Felix enough confidence to wrap his arms around Changbin’s neck and draw him closer so that they can connect their lips again. Less hungry than the last ones, this one is more loving and thankful.

However, Changbin reaches down and wraps his hand around Felix’s semi-hard cock, and the younger splutters a deep moan into Changbin’s mouth. Felix rocks his head back at the feeling and moans and Changbin starts to move his hand up and down. Changbin then positions himself so that he can place his mouth on Felix’s length. He does so, and Felix practically squeals from the new feeling.

Changbin _moves his head slowly to the base, tears forming at the edge of his eyes as he tries to fit Felix’s whole length inside his mouth. He finally reaches the base and Felix lets out a shaky breath that he didn’t even know he had been holding. Changbin lifts his head up slowly, moving his tongue around the shaft as he starts to lob his head up and down. Felix continues to moan as he looks at the boy who looks up every few seconds to make perfectly sure that Felix is okay with everything._ _How did I manage to get such a perfect guy?_

_“Binnie--“ Changbin licks around his sensitive head and Felix stutters out a guttural moan “—you’re fucking amazing, but I want to make you feel good too.”_

_He is too cute,_ _Changbin pops his lips off,_ _“trust me Lix, this is all part of the process.” Felix nods and leans back again as he expects Changbin to put his mouth straight back, however he watches as the older grabs the lube and squeezes a whole heap onto his hand. “Are you sure Felix?”_

_Felix nods._

_“I need verbal confirmation, baby.”_

_“Yes. Please,” he whines._

_Changbin lowers his mouth to Felix’s hard cock again while simultaneously reaching under and placing one finger inside Felix. Tears build in Felix’s eyes at the mix of pain from his uncomfortably stretching walls and the pleasure of the another’s mouth sucking him off. Now Felix knows why he had wanted to do both at the same time._

_The finger inside of him, although still uncomfortable, becomes a little less painful and so he grabs Changbin’s still bobbing head and nods. The second is placed in again and the same feeling of intrusion settles in his stomach. Felix takes in a breath and delivers Changbin another nod, so he begins to scissor the two fingers in an attempt to stretch him out._

_“Changbin, kiss me again.” He obliges, pulling his fingers out of Felix so that he could get in a position to comfortably lay atop the younger. “Them, off too.” Changbin once again follows the orders of his demanding, yet adorable, boyfriend and takes off his boxers so that he too is naked as he lays back down with his arms caged around Lix. Felix reaches out and puts his hand on Changbin’s cock, that is already hard from the emotions of the night. Changbin lets out a choked breath as Felix begins to run his hands up and down. While doing that Changbin reaches between Felix’s legs and makes his way to his hole to readjust him to his two fingers again. He then adds a third and feels as Felix’s hand on him turns into jolted movements with no rhythm –_ _he’s nearly ready._

_His breathing becoming fast because of Felix’s movements on his cock, and his ego boosted as the younger’s little hands encompass Changbin’s length. Changbin removes his fingers and Felix whines at the loss of what was, at first an uncomfortable feeling, yet is now more of a satisfying fill. He also pulls his own cock away from Felix’s hands so that he can place a condom on and position himself at the boy’s entrance. With his dick lined up between Felix’s open legs, and looking down at Felix’s composure-wrecked face, he asks one last question._

_“If you give me one more indicator that you’re okay with this I will enter you, Yongbokkie. But, it will be more painful than my fingers and will take a bit longer to get used to. Are you sure you want to do this?”_

_“I want to do this, with you.” Felix says, opening his legs wider with anticipation._

Changbin squirts a huge amount of lube onto his length, knowing that if his fingers were any indicator, that Felix is going to be incredibly tight. Changbin holds Felix’s waist, making eye contact with the flustered, sweat-covered face of the one who he knows in his heart that he loves. He pushes in, wincing at the tightness of Felix’s walls. He stays still for a moment, until Felix releases a shaky breath and meets Changbin’s eyes with a small shake of his head. He moves pulls in, then out again, going slowly.

“You’re so tight Lix. Are you sure that you’re okay?”

Felix nods his head through the discomfort, knowing that the pleasure will eventually come if he sticks through it. Changbin begins to increase his pace, angling his hips slightly different each time, until he manages to hit a spot that makes Felix’s whole body shake and tense even further around Changbin’s sensitive cock. Changbin continues to drum into that spot with each thrust, ruining Felix before him as the boy becomes a mess of moans and clawing hands that search desperately. They eventually find themselves attached to Changbin’s bare back, scratching and digging into his skin. He knows that they’ll leave marks later, but he doesn’t mind as he knows they’re a sign of Felix’s pleasure that he feels at this very moment.

“Binnie, I won’t be able--” he moans as Changbin continues to hammer his prostate, “--to hold it much longer.” His body rocking back and forth on the bed with each pound of the other’s cock, Felix soon becomes even more unhinged as his moans come out panted and strained, no doubt with the pooling feeling he feels within his stomach. 

“Come for me, Yongbokie.” Changbin says with one more powerful thrust as he leans down to kiss Felix’s open lips. Felix does so, his back arching and his head lolling back as he practically screams as he released onto his own, and Changbin’s stomach above him. Changbin continues to thrust, riding out Felix’s own organism as he can feel himself begin to chase his own. The warm feeling in his stomach approaches and with one last thrust he too releases, however into his condom. Felix feels the extra weight, Changbin’s load pooling in him and he lets out one more ragged breath.

Changbin stays inside Felix for a little bit longer, his arms still caging in the younger, until he decides to slowly pull out. The lack of weight feels odd to Felix and yearns to have it back, however he changes his mind when his eye lids start to sag heavily over his eyes. Changbin walks off to the bathroom, returning a moment later with clean boxers and a towel. He pats Felix down slowly, makings sure to be careful of the boy who he knows will be sore tomorrow.

Once Felix is cleaned, Changbin tosses the towel and pulls the other under the covers with him. Felix faces Changbin’s chest, leaving small, tried kisses on the older’s still-flushed chest. Changbin wraps his arms around Felix’s bare waist and pulls him closer, planting his usual pecking kisses all through Felix’s hair and along his forehead. The younger giggles sleepily, his eyes not opening as he does so.

“I love you.” Changbin whispers into his ear. It is the last thing that Felix hears before he falls into an exhausted slumber, and he wishes more than anything to be able to return that very saying.

/ ~ /

Felix wakes up with the morning sun hitting his eyes from the open window above the head board of the bed. He expects to feel a certain pair of strong arms around him, however they’re not there and so he hops up quickly to look around – worried thoughts flooding his brain when he also remembers what day it is. _It has come too fast._

However, Felix calms down when he hears Changbin’s familiar voice whistling to Fancy from outside the door. Dragging himself out of bed he finds one of Woojin’s extra large purple hoodies and chucks it on, the sleeves hanging well past his small hands and the bottom reaching his mid-thigh. He walks out of the bedroom, catching a glimpse of his puffy eyes and fluffy hair in the mirror of the bathroom as he walks past it and into the kitchen. Changbin’s eyes light up when he sees Felix and he runs up to grab the younger by his thighs and lift him into the air. Felix giggles and, like last night, wraps his limbs around Changbin. “Morning baby, how do you feel?”

He hadn’t felt that bad, until Changbin had set him down onto the cold, hard bench, which now makes his whole body ache from last night.

“I’m okay.”

“That’s good.” Changbin grins and Felix kisses his stretched lips, the older reciprocating the movements as they begin to kiss with nothing other than blissful love: slow movements of the lips, dragged tongues over each other’s – there is no hurry as these to continue to kiss. Well… except Felix is once again reminded that there is in fact a dead line, and he a few straggled tears fall along his cheeks. Changbin can feel the tear on his face as the two kiss and so separate their lips and holds Felix’s face supportively in his hand.

“Why are you crying?”

“I’m just so happy,” he replies as more tears continue to fall, their true origin unbeknown to Changbin.

/ ~ /

“Hey Lix, we need stuff for dinner tonight. I’m gonna go to the grocery store, do you want to come with me?”

_Yes, more than anything I want to go with you and not my father – to live with you and have a mundane life of things like grocery shopping, movie dates and cuddles like other couples._

“I might stay here and freshen up,” Felix forces a smile as he watches Changbin begin to leave him for the last time. “Wait, Changbin!” he forgets what he told himself last night, that saying this would only make things harder, but now he also couldn’t leave without saying it. “I love you Changbin. I didn’t say it last night, but know that I do love you.” The smile on Changbin’ face seems like it could never fade, but he knows that it will, in a matter of hours when he returns to see that Felix has gone.

“Awww Yongbok, I love you too.” Changbin gives Felix one last lingering kiss and a tight hug before walking out of the door.

As he watches Changbin leave he can’t help but let his tears fall in cascades. They continue to fall as he writes Changbin a note, packs a small bag with the clothes and other things he had bought to Chan and Woojin’s apartment and as he leaves that apartment for the last time. He locks the door behind him and slips the key under the mat, he wouldn’t need it again anyway.

The tears fall even harder as walks out of the apartment building and towards the limo he sees waiting on the opposite side of the road.


End file.
